Paul Witt, Jefferson’s senior shortstop, was a first-team Class AAA all-state selection in 2015 as the Cougars won the state championship.

This year, Witt will almost assuredly be named to that same first-team as the Cougars take their 34-3 overall record to Allegheny Power Park in Charleston for today’s evening date against Wheeling Park in the 2016 state semifinals.

Witt has already begun to reap the laurels his .510 batting average leads him to. He was just named the state of West Virginia’s high school Gatorade Player of the Year.

Before this season began in mid-March, Witt had signed an NCAA letter-of-intent to play baseball at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Last Wednesday in Elkins, the Cougars clinched the Region II championship with an 8-1 win over homestanding Elkins High.

With an impending nine days off between games, Jefferson scheduled a “regular season” game with Class A Pendleton County this past Monday. Pendleton County also had a long siege of off days before it was also scheduled to begin play in the four-school Class A state tournament in Charleston. In defeating Elkins, senior left-hander Bradley Davis was Jefferson’s winning pitcher.

Davis was never in trouble in handling the Tigers, a team that had bounced Buckhannon out its Regional with an 11-1 win over the Buck-Ups in only five innings.

Cameron Alvarez, Austin Bulman and Witt were Jefferson’s leading hitters in downing the Tigers.

Should the Cougars defeat Wheeling Park they will face the winner of the Ripley vs. Nitro semifinal game. The Class AAA state championship game is scheduled for Saturday, June 4, at Allegheny Power Park.