St. Marys’ Ella Bullman (3) reaches first safely on a bunt single as Petersburg’s Sammy Colaw (15) and Hannah Hamric (7) look on during Thursday’s state tournament game in South Charleston. Petersburg won, 7-6, in eight innings. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The seventh inning played out like a nightmare for St. Marys in Thursday’s Class A state tournament elimination game against Petersburg at Little Creek Park.

The Blue Devils led 6-4 and needed just three outs to stay alive, but three costly errors allowed the Vikings to tie the game. Petersburg added a run in the eighth on Mickala Taylor’s walkoff single to give the Vikings a 7-6 victory.

Petersburg later lost 4-3 to Wahama, giving the White Falcons the state championship. St. Marys was hoping to have a crack at its Little Kanawha Conference foe, but the seventh-inning meltdown was too much to overcome.

“We just let it slip away,” said St. Marys head coach Lacy Riggs. “That’s all there is to it.”

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Petersburg got back-to-back singles from Jaslyn Shook and Sissy Kitzmiller off St. Marys lefty Ella Smith. Taylor then grounded to short on what could’ve been the second out of the inning, but it was misplayed and allowed Shook to score and make it 6-5. Smith then intentionally walked three-hole hitter Braylee Corbin to load the bases, but got Sammy Colaw to pop out to third.

The Devils needed one more out.

Brooklyn Rohrbough was the next batter and she hit a one-hopping right back to Smith, who immediately fired the ball to catcher Ava Childers. However, the throw was high and went to the backstop, allowing the tying run to score. Then Kennedy Kaposy nearly won the game right there for Petersburg with a sharp grounder up the middle, but St. Marys second baseman Layne Kincaid made a diving stop and flipped to second for the final out, forcing extra innings.

“Our defense kind of let us down there in the seventh inning,” said Riggs, whose team made six total errors in the game.

Colaw, Petersburg’s starting pitcher who tossed an eight-inning complete game with one walk and seven strikeouts, fanned the side in the top of the eighth to get the Vikings back on offense. Hannah Hamric led off with a single and advanced to second on Caitlyn Cooper’s sacrifice bunt. Then Shook, the nine-hole hitter who produced a game-high three hits, dropped a bunt single down the third-base line to put runners on the corners. Smith intentionally walked Kitzmiller to load the bases, and Taylor followed with a grounder right up the middle to end the game.

“Put the ball in play,” said Petersburg head coach Bubba Hedrick. “Just let good things happen.

“I’m glad (Taylor) was up. She had that confidence. You want that senior up there, and she delivered.”

St. Marys, making its second ever state tournament appearance and its first since 2012, finished the 2022 season with a 20-11 record. The young Blue Devils were left stunned after being so close playing for the state title.

“I don’t know if it was nerves, or if they thought we had it and just let up a little bit,” Riggs said. “We’re young. They need to mature. It’s a great group of kids. Just didn’t finish, didn’t shut the door. I’d been telling them the whole game, ‘Girls, if you let them hang around they’re going to bite us.'”

St. Marys struck for a run in the top of the first thanks to Smith’s RBI double, but Petersburg tallied three thanks to Corbin’s RBI double and Colaw’s two-run single. That chased St. Marys starter Cali Masters, who did not record an out. Smith pitched 7 1-3 innings of relief with five punchouts and two intentional walks.

Petersburg had a defensive lapse of its own in the top of the second when Breanna Price’s flyball to right was dropped, allowing Ella Bullman to score from second and Price to come all the way around to tie the game.

“We had some miscues early,” Hedrick said. “We had a couple flyballs we didn’t catch. We normally secure those, but this is a big stage and it’ll gobble you up in a hurry.”

The score remained 3-3 until the bottom of the fifth when the Vikings manufactured a run. Shook led off with a single, advanced to second on an error and to third on Kitzmiller’s groundout. Taylor followed with a groundout to short, which was enough to bring in Shook and give Petersburg a 4-3 lead.

It was short-lived, though, as St. Marys put up a three-spot in the top of the sixth. Kincaid and Ava Giovinazzo started things off with back-to-back one-out singles. Both players came around to score when Childers’ flyball to right was misplayed, making it 5-4. The Devils got an insurance run when Bullman’s bunt single plated Childers to make it a two-run game.

“It’s a game of who can make the plays,” Hedrick said. “If you don’t it can bite you.”

That set up a wild seventh inning, one the Blue Devils would like to have back. Riggs is confident this won’t be the last time you see St. Marys in the state tournament.

“I think our future is very bright at St. Marys,” Riggs said. “I look for us to be back. You don’t want to speak to soon, but I have pretty good confidence that we have a good shot of being back here again next year. This team did great this season. We just fell short a little bit.”

WAHAMA 4, PETERSBURG 3

A three-run third lifted Wahama past Petersburg and gave the White Falcons the Class A state championship.

Mikie Lieving, who pitched around bases-loaded jams in the first and third innings and limited the damage to just one run for the Vikings, finished with 13 strikeouts in the complete game victory.

She also started the White Falcons’ third-inning rally by walking and stealing second. Amber Wolfe followed with an RBI triple and later scored on Emma Knapp’s squeeze bunt. Wahama added a third run via a passed ball to go up 3-1.

The state champs tacked on another run in the fifth when Lieving doubled and later scored on Lauren Noble’s sac fly.

Petersburg fought back though and plated two runs in the top of the sixth as Kitsmiller and Corbin came up with two-out RBI singles. The Vikings still had two runners on and Colaw at the plate, but Lieving, who fanned 41 batters over three state tourney games, induced a groundout to escape further damage. She pitched a clean seventh to secure the crown for the White Falcons.