By RICH STEVENS

FOR CONNECT-BRIDGEPORT

 

Bridgeport’s No. 5 hitter wasn’t just the guy in the No. 1 Indians’ 3-2 West Virginia Class AAA state baseball tournament quarterfinal victory over East Fairmont; he was the man.

 

Guy Avolio followed back-to-back intentional walks with a sacrifice fly to score Lucas Rohrig from third with a one out sacrifice fly in a 2-2 game in the bottom of the seventh to lead Bridgeport over the No. 8 Bees (21-9) and into the semifinals at Marshall University’s Jack Cook Field.

 

Shields, who won his 1,006th career game on Tuesday, had to strategize in crisis avoidance against East Fairmont starting pitcher Joseph Schnore, who was efficient despite walking two and hitting three batters. He threw 52 strikes among 91 pitches and had two runners on and one out when he left in the seventh, five pitches after being hit with a line drive on the inside of his non-pitching wrist.

 

“He said he wasn’t coming out … there was no way he was coming out,” said 12th-year East Fairmont coach Joe Price, a 1991 Magnolia High graduate and former teammate of John Marshall coach Mark Cisar, whose Monarchs face St. Albans in today’s 5 p.m. Class AAA quarterfinal. “Our kids battled and Brody Bledsoe played lights out at third base.”

 

Bledsoe assisted in a team-high six putouts, including a sliding stop to keep Bridgeport off the scoreboard in the first inning, making the last out of the fifth, and handling a two-out grounder in the sixth after East Fairmont scored on a wild pitch.

 

A 10-run victory over East Fairmont earlier this spring had no consequence on their second meeting of the season. The game was tied or the Bees led through six innings. Bridgeport starting pitcher Owen Sondericker came with a heavy dose of curveballs early and McClain, the Bees’ cleanup hitter, fouled off three two-strike pitches before clubbing a curveball ball to the fence for the game’s first run in the first inning.

 

“The hit he gave up to McClain … he battled and had a great at bat,” Shields said. “Owen pitched so well. It was muggy out there and he was still throwing 85 in the sixth and seventh innings.”

 

Breaking pitches early in the count were by design for Sondericker but so was mixing it up as the game progressed. After the first, he surrendered two hits, hit a batter, and gave up an unearned run.

 

“They like to get on the first pitch,” Shields said. “I thought we would mix it up and keep them off balance.”

 

Bridgeport (31-4) managed just two hits out of the top four batters of its order. However, leadoff hitter Lucas Rohrig reached on a hit by pitch, No. 2 batter Jaxson McNally reached base on a pair of walks, and Sondericker forced a walk. Batters five through nine were 4-for-12 with two RBI.

 

The Indians take an 11-game winning streak into Friday’s 10 a.m. game against the winner of Ripley-Spring Valley, who met in the second triple-A quarterfinal on Tuesday.

 

This is Shields’ 39th season with the Indians and is seeking his 10th state championship with the last coming in 2021, its longest drought under Sheilds since his team had to wait 13 years between his second (2000) and his third (2014). Bridgeport won consecutive titles from 2014-19 and another in 2021.