Biafore Drives in Four Runs as Bridgeport Beats Buckhannon-Upshur 5-1 for Sectional Championship
By Chris Johnson on May 09, 2024
It may not have been Bridgeport’s sharpest performance of the year, but the Indians closed out the Class AAA Region I, Section 2 tournament as champions, defeating Buckhannon-Upshur, 5-1, on Thursday at the BHS baseball field.
There were a couple of miscues in the field, a base-running blunder or two, pop-ups with runners in scoring position and too many leadoff walks issued to the Buccaneers for BHS coach Robert Shields’ liking.
However, good teams find ways to win games that they struggle in. And make no mistake about it, the Indians, now 29-4 and sectional champs, are a good team.
“Going into the seventh inning, we had four out of the six innings with leadoff walks,” Shields said. “That’s a lot of walks, that’s not good. But you know what, even with two mistakes in the infield, we fought around a lot of that stuff.
“We made the plays when we had to, we had some timely hits. We just have to keep getting better and better and I think we have the opportunity to do that with some practice time now that we have this (sectional tournament) under our belt. We have a whole week to get ready for the regional.”
Speaking of timely hits, Mark Biafore delivered two of them, both two-run singles to lead the BHS offense.
And although starting pitcher Rowen Michaelis and reliever Carson Currey uncharacteristically gave up too many free passes (four apiece) both had strong outings.
Michaelis went four innings and earned the win, improving to 3-1. He only allowed the one run on three hits and struck out four. Currey also struck out four in three shutout innings and he allowed two hits en route to picking up his third save of the year.
Biafore gave the Indians a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a two-run single that plated Brody Pierce and Dylan Duvall.
Jerin Westfall hit an RBI single to cut the B-U deficit to one in the top of the third.
The Indians extended their lead to 3-1 when Ashton Curry crossed the plate on a delayed double steal.
Biafore provided the backbreaker with a two-run single in the fifth. Pierce and Zach Rohrig scored on the hit.
Biafore was the only BHS player with multiple hits. B-U’s Brody McDaniels and Gage Parsons each had two hits. McDaniels was tagged with the loss. He went 4 1-3 innings, allowing all five runs (only three were earned) on five hits with four walks and one strikeout.
The Class AAA Region I tournament will begin Monday, May 20. Bridgeport is the top seed in the region and will be at home for Game 1 of the regional and Game 3 if necessary.
In the other side of the region, Morgantown has advanced to the Section 1 title game and is awaiting the winner of Friday’s game between John Marshall and Wheeling Park.
The Indians will likely pick up a pair of tune-up games next week but nothing has been finalized yet.
Editor's Note:Top photo shows the BHS baseball team with their sectional championship, bottom photo is of Biafore making contact for one of his pair of two-run singles.
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