In The Mountain State Athletic Conference Championships played at Hurricane's Lola Meeks Memorial Field the semifinals were played Monday evening April 30th, and the Finals were played Tuesday May 1st, 2007.
St. Albans won the first semifinal game over The Spring Valley Timberwolves 4 - 2. This game was won on Tommy Mallory's 7th inning 2 run home run. He smacked it in the bottom of the 7th inning scoring C.J. Meadows who had got on with a hit to break a 2 - 2 tie.
Hurricane Wins Semi-Final
In the second game senior all state pitcher Arik Sikula gave up three runs on five hits and pitched a complete game for the win . ( Arik Sikula is now 7 - 0 on the season. ) His pitches was near 90 miles an hour on the night.
Sikula had such speed on his pitches and control and has the best catcher in AAA baseball in junior Thor Meeks and they held the Kanawha Valley's stolen bases leader centerfielder Chase Pickering of Nitro to no swipes on this day.
Nitro who has a very young infield with two freshmen and 2 sophomores and played well , but wasn't enough against this phemon team today, Chase Pickering led Nitro at the plate with two hits as he was a perfect 2 for 2 hitting the ball.
Going on a hitting terror for Hurricane was All-State senior Kyle Blank who smashed two home runs and drove in six runs to lead the no. 1 ranked Redskins to a punishing victory over The Nitro Wildcats 14 - 3
Jake Kight was the losing pitcher for Nitro but it wasn't his fault. He was the victim of just too much Kyle Blank & Arik Sikula this juggernaut from Putnam County. Hurricane has just has too many weapons. Kight gave up only eight hits but had six errors behind him.
It was another 5 inning mercy rule game for The astonishing Redskins and are a team that well have to be reckoned with in the state tournament.
Nitro Wildcats 1 0 1 0 1 - 3 5 6
Hurricane Redskins 4 0 1 7 2 - 14 8 1
Third Place Game Won By Timberwolves In Extra Innings
The Spring Valley Timberwolves scored four times in the bottom of the 7th inning off Nitro Errors to tie the game up 6 - 6 and send the game into extra innings.
The Timberwolves Clay Crabtree got on in the bottom of the 8th inning with a hit and moved to second base on a wild pitch . And Crabtree scored on a sharp hit by Heath Booton in a hole near shortstop and the throw from the shortstop came off the 1st baseman's glove and Crabtree scored the winning run.
Nitro, the 10th ranked team, is 19 - 9 on the season. For Nitro Shad Fox had 3 hits and Daniel Kahn was 2 of 3 hitting the ball with a double. and Chase Pickering had 2 hits and a double.
Redskins Swamp Dragons in Championship Game
It was a Home Run Derby for the Hurricane Redskins at Lola Meeks Memorial Field.
Senior centerfielder Cameron Dunlavy, junior catcher Thor Meeks and first baseman Andrew Hill all hit two run blasts.
Senior All-State pitcher Kyle Blank pitched five innings, and gave up two hits to come away with a 11 - 1 victory. He struck out seven Dragon batters. Blank has a 6 - 0 pitching record and now leads the MSAC with 10 Home Runs.
Hurricane was high on adrenaline for this game . As stated by all state candidate Cameron Dunlvay ( who in my mind is the best centerfielder in the state . ) And he sighed with Marshall to play baseball next year . He said ," We were supposed to play St. Albans earlier this season and it was canceled . We were pumped up for this game, And we came out on fire and swinging big time."
St. Albans is 23 - 3 and third ranked in the state. There two other loses was to top 10 teams by a total of 3 points.
Billy Joe Hicks has built a very strong and good team. They look like state champions to me. I think this team can handle the pressure .
Showing the great dominance The Redskins scored in every inning on their way to a five inning 10-run mercy rule game. Even the defense of this juggernaut plays phenomenal.
Tommy Mallory took the loss, but when a team hits like that and you have 4 errors behind you and you are playing a phenom like Hurricane bad things happen. The Dragons also left eight runners on base and left the bases loaded twice.
Having the big bat for St. Albans was - The only one to have a RBI was Tommy Mallory who drew a bases on balls with the bases loaded. T.J. Fisher and Tyler Pauley both had a hit each for The Dragons..
Having a big bat for Hurricane was - Senior centerfielder Cameron Dunlavy who was 2-of-3 batting the ball with a home run and drove in two runs. Junior catcher Thor Meeks slammed a home run and drove in three runs. First baseman Andrew Hill had a home run and drove in two runs. Junior Justin Henry was a perfect 2-for-2 at the plate and drove in a run.
The outfield of Cam Dunlavy , Billy Smith, Brett Barber just can cover so much area. The infield of shortstop Arik Sikula , 3rd base Justin Henry, 1st baseman Andrew Hill, and 2nd baseman Chris Finch , senior utility player Chris Holesopple is as good as anybody and i would say best there is in the state.
The pitching staff of Arik Sikula, Kyle Blank, Brett Barber, Justin Henry and Mike Gramlich are something to watch. This team is on a Pilgrimage to the holy power land in Charleston.
St Albans Red Dragons 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 2 4
Hurricane Redskins 3 3 2 1 2 - 11 9 1
