Winfield Baseball Advances to Regional Championship

Winfield advanced to its second straight Class AAA Region 4 baseball championship with a 5-0 win against visiting Logan on Monday night. For my recap on the game in today’s Daily Mail, click here.

The Generals advance to play host to Cabell Midland at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Senior pitcher Josh Bumgarner carried Winfield en route to the championship behind his complete-game, one-hitter. At the plate, Bumgarner also finished 2-for-3 with a two-run single in the sixth to extend the Generals’ lead to 5-0.

Winfield (15-16) has played its best ball all season in the postseason, winning five of its last six games. During its postseason run, the Generals have shut out opponents three of the last four games -- the only shutouts Winfield has recorded all season.

“We’re playing well because we’re playing to our identity,” Winfield coach Will Isaacs said. “We’re not trying to hit the ball out. We’re not trying to strike everybody out. We’re pitching to contact, making the plays, we’re putting the ball in play and having good at-bats, and you have a chance then. I’m not saying you’re going to win, but you have a chance.”

The Generals’ play is most impressive as the team overcame some early-season struggles with the departure of one of Winfield’s top returning players in pitcher Mason Dillon, as well as the suspension of Dana Harper, who has since returned to the team.

“We had some adversity and changes in the middle of the season,” Isaacs said. “Some people went to some new positions and I told my team it may take a while to adjust and we had some guys we had to pitch their first varsity games, and we took some lumps, but we had to get guys playing in certain positions and in certain roles, and I told them if you just be patient and keep working, not give in, we have a chance to win, that we would get better as the season went on.”

Bumgarner said he agreed with his coach, that the Generals have persevered to shine at the perfect time.

“I definitely think we’re getting stronger throughout the season and peaking at the right point,” he said. “We practice harder than anyone I know and it’s really paying off right now. We don’t have the best talent around here, but you get in elimination games and anything can happen. That’s where hard work really comes out to show and I think that’s really what’s carried us this far.”

Meanwhile, for Logan (20-10), Monday’s loss marked the Wildcats’ final game of the season and the end to high school careers for four players.

“It’s never easy,” Logan coach Roger Gertz said of the season-ending loss. “It’s always tough with your seniors. We had four great kids help lead this team in Trent Dalton, Johnny Morrison, Benji Adkins and Alex Lakatos, and they worked hard, not just when we started. They started working last August and never stopped, and I really admire what they did.”

Below, I’ll do my best to recap Monday’s game, including its most important innings.

Logan 3rd: Logan manufactured its best threat in the third inning when senior Alex Lakatos led off the inning with the Wildcats’ lone hit of the game. Lakatos singled up the middle to start the inning. Next, Trent Dalton laid down a bunt fielded by Bumgarner, but a fielding error allowed Lakatos’ pinch-runner and Dalton to advance to first and second safely. Then, Kyle Harvey executed a sacrifice bunt to advance runners to second and third with one out. However, Bumgarner and the Winfield defense quelled the threat from that point. Bumgarner induced lead-off hitter Josh Rein to ground out to second base. Generals second baseman Casey Frye fielded the grounder and looked the third-base runner back to third before firing to first for the inning’s second out. Next, Chase Preston flied out to left field to end the inning.

Winfield 3rd: After a solid play in the field, Frye started the bottom half of the third inning with a single to left field. With two outs, Jordan Clark ripped a double to right field as Frye advanced to third. Next, Bumgarner hit a line drive back to starting pitcher Troy Burgess. The liner hit Burgess in what appeared to be the heel of his glove and he reacted to the shot. The ball deflected to the third base side of the infield. Logan’s third baseman fielded and threw onto first, but Bumgarner beat the throw to the bag as Frye scored the game’s first run.

Logan 4th: Bumgarner retired the Wildcats 1-2-3 on four pitches.

Winfield 4th: Winfield looked to add more runs, but an unfortunate play thwarted any such hopes. Bryan Bosley started the inning with a single to left field. Next up, Tanner Bailey laid down a sacrifice bunt toward the third base line. Logan catcher Zach Minnick fielded the ball and fired to first base. The ball looked to hit Bailey in the back. The umpiring crew ruled Bailey out as he was running out of the base line. Bosley, who had advanced to third base, was directed back to first. If not for the ruling, Winfield, at the least, would have had Bosley at second, and maybe even third, with one out, though it appeared even if Minnick’s throw were on target Bailey would have been safe. Instead, Winfield now had one out and a runner on first. The next Generals hitter slapped a grounder to the Logan second baseman, who tagged Bosley in between first and second and threw onto first base to complete the double play and end the inning. What looked to be a solid scoring threat quickly turned to nothing as Logan maintained its one-run deficit.

Winfield 5th: John Sneeringer hit a one-out single to left field. Next, lead-off hitter Brandon Wright hit a grounder up the middle. The Logan second baseman fielded behind the second base bag, but could not make a play on Sneeringer or Wright, as the runners reach first and second safely. The play proved costly as Jordan Clark followed with a two-run double to left field. Facing a 3-0 deficit, Logan coach Roger Gertz removed Burgess from the mound for reliever Chase Burnette, a freshman. Burnette faced just one batter, walking Bumgarner, before senior Johnny Morrison entered in relief. Morrison struck out the first batter he faced, before hitting Bosley to load the bases. Morrison, however, recovered to strike out the next batter and end the inning.

Logan 6th: The Wildcats threatened again by advancing another runner into scoring position, though came up empty. Harvey began the inning with a walk. With Josh Rein at the plate, Harvey advanced to second on a wild pitch. Bumgarner retired the next two batters after the walk to Harvey before facing Logan’s top slugger Minnick. With first base open, Bumgarner and the Generals opted for the “unintentional intentional” walk on four straight pitches outside the zone. The move paid off as Bumgarner avoided giving Logan’s best hitter a quality pitch to hit and Bumgarner retired the next batter on a fly out, ending the threat and inning.

Winfield 6th: The Generals scored twice on a two-out rally. With two outs, Sneeringer walked followed by another Wright single. Clark walked to load the bases. Next, Bumgarner ripped a two-run single to right field to all but cement the victory. Bear Bellomy then walked to once again load the bases. Freshman Jared Shawver entered in relief, spelling Morrison and recorded the inning’s final out.

Logan 7th: Bumgarner finished the game by striking out the side in the seventh, advancing Winfield to the regional championship in style.