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State baseball champions all repeats from 2018 championship

By Staff | Jun 7, 2019

John P. Riley, Jr. Park in Charleston will be the home to the 2019 state baseball championship. Courtesy photo

CHARLESTON — Those who don’t pay attention to history are bound to repeat it.

St. Albans, Bridgeport and Moorefield all must have paid close attention to the baseball history in West Virginia, because all three teams were able to repeat their 2018 state championships last weekend in Charleston.

The Red Dragons of St. Albans once again tamed Hurricane in the Class AAA state championship game. Hurricane had already lost twice to St. Albans this season as well falling to the opportunistic Red Dragons in the 2018 state championship finale. Not only wasn’t the third time a charm for Hurricane, even the fourth time didn’t help any. The score of the 2019 championship game was 5-0.

In the big-school semifinals, St. Albans had beaten Wheeling Park, 4-1, and Hurricane reached the state finals again with a pitcher-dominated 1-0 win over Hedgesville.

Bridgeport just kept on winning the Class AA state championship. The Indians rolled over Shady Spring, 9-2, in the semifinals and then stopped Frankfort, 5-2 in the championship game.

Frankford had reached the finals with comeback, 3-2, win over Scott’s Skyhawks in eight innings in the semifinals. Frankfort faced a 2-1 deficit in the bottom of the eighth. The Mineral County-based Falcons were only one out away from being eliminated when their first two batters struck out. But then a single and two Scott errors opened the scoring gate just enough for Frankfort to score twice and pull out the win. The winning run scored when a routine flyball to left was dropped.

It was streaking Bridgeport’s sixth straight Class AA state championship.

Moorefield, the state champion in 2018 in a field that had three Catholic schools in Charleston, repeated that feat by first rolling, 10-0, over Huntington St. Joseph’s in the Class A semifinals and then edging Charleston Catholic, 4-2, in the championship game.

The Class A state tournament field again included three Catholic schools and the Moorefield Yellowjackets.

Charleston Catholic had dismissed Wheeling Central Catholic, 10-4, in the other semifinal game.

History repeated itself, especially in the case of Bridgeport.

An oddity occurred when St. Albans defeated Hurricane on Sunday. WVSSAC rules prohibit high schools from playing games on Sunday, but a long thunderstorm washed out the late Thursday schedule and forced a back log of games that extended into Sunday.