Bridgeport High School’s baseball team finds itself in a familiar spot today – in the sectional championship round. Thanks to strong pitching, good defense and aggressive play, the Indians rolled past Liberty and Elkins to advance to today’s game.

 

BHS, 23-6, will host the contest at 6 p.m. The Tribe will face Elkins looking to advance to regional play.

 

As is always the case, veteran Coach Robert Shields isn’t saying who will be the starting pitcher until he “gets a feel for it.” What he does know, is that he’s got good options.

 

“We’ll have everyone available to throw Monday,” said Shields. “Having everyone isn’t as important, though, as having the person you throw, throw solid and have good defense behind them. If we can do that and get our leadoff guys on to take advantage of our team speed, we’ll be able to compete to move ahead.”

 

In the event the Indians would win, they would be the section champion and advance to next week’s best of three series. If the Tribe would lose, they would play Tuesday at 6 p.m. against today’s foe in a win or go home scenario for both teams.

 

Before getting to today’s game the Class AA top-ranked Indians had to take care of business against Liberty and state-ranked Elkins. Both games proved favorable to the Tribe.

 

Against the Mountaineers, Brayden Lesher proved to be toxic for the second time this year on the mound. After a dominating regular season outing against LHS, things didn’t chance last Tuesday. Instead, Lesher threw one-hit ball over five innings of play, walked two and struck out seven. Tim Via came on in relief to close the door against Liberty in what turned into an 8-1 win.

 

“These last few outings, he’s been hard to beat. The hits off him, they were mistake pitches, which will happen in high school baseball,” said Shields. “For the most part, he’s been spot on and that was the case against Liberty. “He just pounded the ball outside and kept them off balance.”

 

 

 

Bridgeport got all the offense it would need for Lesher in the third and fourth innings. The Tribe scored four runs in each to seal the deal.

 

J.T. Harris and Drew Hefner led the way at the plate as the seniors both had a pair of hits. Hefner’s total included a double.

 

The game’s biggest hit, however, belonged to Cooper Hineman. In the fourth, Hineman took a Liberty offering and deposited into the woods beyond the fence for a three-run blast.

 

While that win was big, the game with Elkins was a bit more personal. The Tigers not only have a 1-0 win against BHS to their credit, but were holding a 1-0 lead in a game in Bridgeport when it was canceled due to inclement weather.

 

This time around, however, things went the way of Bridgeport. And a lot of that had to do with the pitching of Gordon Swiger.

 

Although the game was close early and BHS actually trailed at one point, Swiger settled down and didn’t allow a run over the final four innings of the contest in what turned into a 6-3 win by Bridgeport.

 

Swiger went the full seven and allowed three runs on five hits with one walk. He also finished the game with 10 strikeouts.

 

The best part was that Swiger did all of his damage after throwing nearly 70 pitches in the first four innings, Shields said. Considering that high school pitchers have a 110 pitch limit, Shields knew it could be a problem.

 

“I told him that he was getting a little too high in his pitch count and he just said, ‘coach, I got this.’ Apparently he did because he three just 40 pitches in those last three innings and was just under the limit,” said Shields.

 

BHS led 1-0 after one inning and were down 2-1 heading into the bottom of the second. A three-run second inning put Bridgeport back on top for good and a pair of insurance runs in the sixth all but iced with Swiger in control.

 

Brine Takahashi led the Indians’ eight-hit attack by going 2-for-3 with a double. Swiger helped his own cause with a double in the outing.

 

“It was great to get the win, but not because they beat us this year. In the postseason, you don’t want to have to fight out of the loser’s bracket because you have to play more games,” said Shields. “The more games you play, the more pressure it puts on your pitching staff and the more chances that something can go wrong.”

 

Shields also praised his team’s defense against Elkins. He added that the bottom of the batting order came through as well.

 

Editor's Note: Photos by www.benqueenphotography.com.