KEYSER, W.Va. — The Allegany-Keyser matchup has been the measuring stick for area softball most seasons over the past decade. Saturday’s matchup was no exception.
The game featured quality pitching, defensive highlights and late-game heroics — the most significant a go-ahead solo home run by Jordyn Sneathen in the fifth inning.
That big fly proved to be the difference, and Sneathen fanned 13 in a complete-game two-hitter to power No. 1 Allegany to a 3-1 victory over No. 2 Keyser on Saturday.
“I couldn’t be more proud because I thought we played a pretty good game, made some mental mistakes,” Allegany head coach Dave Winner said, “but we had some kids running bases that haven’t played high school ball before. But they’ll get better.
“Keyser’s got a great team. It’s just a game that could have won either way and just happened to go our way.”
While the series has been defined by thrillers in recent memory, Allegany (1-0) upped its winning streak against Keyser to nine games. The Campers have won 13 of 14 meetings.
Sneathen’s decisive shot came with one out in the fifth, a 1-0 delivery from Leighton Johnson that the senior sent on a line over the left-field fence for a 2-1 lead.
Sneathen, who is signed to St. Francis, finished the game with four scoreless no-hit frames in the circle to slam the door.
“Jordyn did the backup thing to Abi (Britton) for two years,” Winner said. “She stepped in last year and she actually got so much better the second half of last year, including the playoffs. I think she picked it up tonight where she left off at. She’s a fighter. She wants the ball.”
The lone blemish to the right-hander’s resume was a game-tying solo home run in the third by Kailynn Burns, who redirected a rise ball in her eyes over the center field wall.
Allegany out-hit Keyser, 8-2. Mykah Baker went 3 for 4 with a double — driving in the Campers’ first run on a single in the first — Sneathen and Eden Robinson had two hits each, and Desi Hilton doubled and scored twice.
Keyser (1-1) used its gloves to stay in the game with a series of run-saving highlights.
Facing a 2nd-and-3rd, no-out scenario in the first inning, Keyser second baseman Suzy Cosenza made a running grab in shallow right field and doubled off the runner at second, aided by a base-running blunder.
Cosenza also made a diving grab in the sixth to rob Maylee Blank of a hit.
Allegany appeared to answer Burns’ big fly when Robinson singled up the middle with a runner on second base in the fourth, but the 8-6-2 relay of Burns to Bibs Felton to Brielle Root gunned down the runner at the plate.
Keyser left fielder Brianna O’Reilly robbed Savannah Walton of extra bases with a full-speed grab down the line in the fifth.
“Defensive performances like this are going to really carry over and help,” Keyser head coach Cody Spotts said. “Hopefully we get back down to Charleston. These are the tests we need. Whether it’s early or late, these are the teams that we need to see.”
However, Keyser finally blinked in the field in the seventh, as back-to-back errors put Hilton and Sneathen on to start.
Walton laid a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first-base line, and a base-running miscue somehow resulted in an Allegany run.
The Campers’ trail runner, who safely went to second on the bunt, retreated to first thinking the sacrifice went foul. The ball was still live and the runner was tagged out at first, but Hilton swiped the final 60 feet during the chaos to make it a 3-1 game.
Johnson spun a complete game in defeat, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk in seven innings of work.
Allegany is back in action at West Virginia Class AAAA power University (3-0) on Monday at 5 p.m.
Keyser will look to get back into the win column when it hosts Mountain Ridge (0-1) on Monday at 6 p.m.
“It’s tough to go undefeated in any sport, and playing good teams like that … … (you) can really kind of see where you’re at as a team as a whole,” Spott said. “Allegany is a great team. They always are and always look forward to playing them.”