CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nitro shortstop J.R. Bradley didn’t envision his season ending this way. Neither did the thousands of Wildcats fans who left in disbelief Sunday and the overjoyed Martinsburg team that had just knocked off the defending Class AAA champion.
Bradley’s error with the bases loaded allowed the winning run to score in the seventh inning as Martinsburg beat Nitro 9-8 in the title game.
Bradley’s pitching and hitting carried Nitro into the championship game and he came through again Sunday with a two-run homer, but he dropped the grounder off the bat of Ryan Bennett, enabling T.J. Weisenburg to cross the plate and giving Martinsburg its first baseball title since 1995.
“It’s what happens. That’s the way it is,” Bradley said. “It’s not a good feeling.”
Considering that Nitro (31-5) had beaten Martinsburg 10-0 during the regular season and by the same score in last year’s semifinals, most everyone, even on the Martinsburg side, figured the Wildcats were the favorites again.
“Nine of out 10 times we wouldn’t have beat them, but tonight we did,” said Martinsburg coach John Lowery Jr.
Lowery joins his father, Jefferson coach John Lowery Sr., in winning state titles. The elder Lowery has a record nine championships.
Martinsburg (28-9) became the first school to win Class AAA titles in basketball and baseball in the same season. Class AAA baseball began in 1976.
“I couldn’t believe it. I can’t even really put it into words,” John Lowery Jr. said. “I was prepared that we weren’t going to win mentally, but I tried not to communicate that to my guys. I just wanted to stay even keel.”
Martinsburg outhit Nitro 11-7. The 17 total runs made it the highest-scoring Class AAA title game in at least a quarter century. Scores of championship games haven’t been kept before 1984.
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Associated Press
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