Published: May 15, 2009 01:32 am      

Flying high

East tops Bears, 7-0, in regional semifinal

RIVESVILLE — When the chips were down for East Fairmont’s softball team the Bees came through with flying colors.

Madonna Gribble homered and drove in three runs and Nikki Nuzum kept the Polar Bears off balance on the mound as the Bees defeated Fairmont Senior Thursday in the Class AAA, Region I semifinal.

“It feels good to beat a good team like Fairmont Senior,” East Fairmont head coach Chuck Fluharty said. “They are a class act, well-coached and had a great season. It feels really good to get a win over a team like that in a situation like this.”

The game was scoreless until East pushed three runs across the plate in the top of the second.

With two outs, Kaylee Murphy and Karissa Baker drew walks. A passed ball moved the runners up to second and third and a single by Taylor Wright brought home both runs. Gribble then followed with a double to deep right to score another run to stake East to a 3-0 lead, which was all Nuzum needed.

She kept the Bears off balance with a mixture of pitches in earning the seven-inning shutout victory.

“Nikki did a real nice job,” Fluharty said. “I always say it’s all about pitching and defense, and here at East Fairmont that’s what we try to live by. And today it showed. We were excellent in both today.”

The Polar Bears were not baffled by Nuzum and put the ball in play several times. But each ball either went right to a Bee player or East came up with the play to keep the Polar Bears scoreless.

“We did hit the ball, but at people,” Fairmont Senior head coach Ken Beerbower said. “East stepped up at the right time. They had some turmoil, but came together when they needed to.”

East added two more runs in the fourth on Gribble’s two-run shot to center field and one each in the fifth and sixth innings to produce the final outcome.

Ashley Gwynn took the loss for the Bears, throwing all seven innings.

“I’m real proud of my hitters,” Fluharty said. “That’s a tough pitcher we faced, but we put the bat on the ball well. We were focused and worked the count.”

Beerbower said his pitcher was battling arm soreness all week.

“Ashley’s arm has been sore,” he said. “She took a few days off this week, but wanted to pitch this game. She didn’t do bad at all; they just hit everything she threw up there.”

The Bees will move on to face the winner of Wheeling Park-University for the Region I title and a berth in the state tournament.

That game will be played at East Fairmont on Thursday, May 21 at 5 p.m.

“We’ve never hosted a regional final,” Fluharty said. “We’re real excited about that game.”

The Polar Bears end the season with a 24-8 record.

“We had a good season,” Beerbower said. “We’re one of very few teams in the state to win 24 games in a season, and this is one of the top three seasons ever for Fairmont Senior.”

E-mail Mike Bowen at mbowen@timeswv.com.