Photo by Cody Tomer Parkersburg South’s baseball team celebrates the program’s first Ohio Valley Athletic Conference title Friday night at Wheeling’s I-470 Fields. The Patriots hung on for a 7-6 win over Wheeling Park. Photo by Cody Tomer WHEELING–All season long, Wheeling Park has thrived under pressure. Park tried its hand once again on Friday to excite the crowd with another comeback victory but the talent of Parkersburg South stood strong as it held on for a 7-6 triumph to capture the OVAC 5A Championship at the J.B. Chambers I-470 Complex. Four of the first five runs that crossed the plate for Parkersburg South were unearned after several defensive miscues by Park. “When you play upper-level competition, you can’t bury yourself in a hole,” Park coach Mike McLeod said. “We booted it around a little bit but make no mistake, they are a good team and they have a lot more baseball left to go.” South held a 4-0 lead after two innings and a 6-1 advantage after four but the resilient Park squad continued to battle. Wheeling Park cut the deficit to just one in the bottom of the seventh and put the tying run on third with two outs but Parkersburg South pitcher Chase Freshour induced a fly-out to end the ballgame and end the Park rally. “That’s the neat thing about coaching here is that we aren’t going to quit,” McLeod said. “We won’t give up. We had some guys with bad at-bats early but we made some in-game adjustments and we’re never out of a game. “We’re going to keep working. There is a lot of pride here and we’re going to get ready for sectionals now and a nice run in the playoffs.” The victory marks the first OVAC title in the history of the Parkersburg South baseball program. “I’ve been with these seniors here for a few years and this is what they wanted,” South coach Todd Burner said. “They wanted to try to get to the state championship and this is the first step towards it. “Wheeling Park is a good baseball team. They could have easily given up and they didn’t and we could have very easily folded and we didn’t. That was just two good ball teams right there.” A key play in the title bout came in the bottom of the fifth. After Park plated three runs in the frame and loaded the bases with just one out, Freshour induced a 6-4-3 double play to escape the jam and stop the momentum. “That was huge,” Burner said. “(Brett Donohew) hit the ball on the nose in a pinch-hit situation and it just went right to our shortstop for the double play.” Reece Fletcher provided a RBI knock in the first to give Park the early 1-0 edge, after leadoff hitter Ben Menerchek reached on an error. Fletcher delivered again in the second with a two-run single and Nick Yoho added a sac-fly to extend the lead to 4-0 after two. South’s lead continued to stretch in the fourth behind a RBI hit off the bat of Todd Burner Jr. and a Bryce Eagle sac-fly, creating a 6-0 cushion. Park outscored South 6-1 the rest of the way. Jacob Shia raced home twice on wild pitches, while Trevor Thomas and Jarrod Jones each garnered RBI knocks in the fifth to trim the lead to 6-4. Yoho supplied one more RBI hit in the sixth for South only to watch an error allow Park to get the run back in the bottom of the stanza. The final Wheeling Park run came in the seventh after a leadoff William Pelley double set the table for Ross Salvatori, who ripped a RBI single to third base. As South led by one, Salvatori made his way to third for leadoff hitter Zach Kahle, who had already doubled in the contest. Freshour made one more delivery to the plate and Kahle clubbed a fly ball to shallow left, that sent the South dugout into celebration. “We hit, we pitched and we battled,” Burner said. “I think our top four hitters all bunted (Friday) and we just squeezed in runs here and there. I thought our guys did a nice job of that.”