WVIAC Championship Preview

Well it is down to two teams in the WVIAC Baseball Tournament. After all the games were played yesterday, we are left with the Shepherd Rams and the Alderson-Broaddus Battlers who will play at 1pm today for the WVIAC Baseball championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Rams will be playing for their 5th WVIAC Baseball title while Alderson-Broaddus will be looking for their first title.

Last Night, the final game of pool play which determined who would face Shepherd was one of the most exciting of the tournament and took 11 innings to settle before Concord scored on a double to left field in the top of the 11th to take a 4-3 lead which won them the game. The game was an interesting game because Concord was basically playing for pride because they had no chance to advance to the title game and I was impressed with the intensity both teams brought into this game. In the bottom of the 9th, trailing 3-1 Fairmont State finally got the offense they needed thanks to a bases loaded hit off the screen in left field which scored two runs, but the winning runner was thrown out at the plate on a nice throw to send the game to extra innings. 

There was some bad blood in the crowd following the game with shouting between some people in the stands after the game and even one man who called the police because he sad another fan had assaulted him. I am guessing that these two team had some history with each other which caused this because overall during the game both sides were pretty good. Overall the crowd was great for the past two days and I would expect another good one today to close the tournament. I think all of us here in Johnstown need to thank the WVIAC for bringing this tournament to town and helping our businesses on this weekend. 

Prediction: I think Shepherd wins their 5th WVIAC Title this Afternoon.