WEIRTON – The Weir softball team’s bats went silent against Wheeling Park.

An errant Red Rider throw led to the first run of the game, and the Patriots tacked on a pair of insurance runs on a home run as Wheeling Park shut out Weir, 3-0, in 12 innings on an overcast Friday evening up at the Roberta “Birdie” DeFrancis Softball Field.

“Eliza should file a civil suit for lack of support,” Weir (21-6) head coach John Leary said. “She pitched a great game. To hold a team like that that has scored a lot of runs scoreless for 11 innings, she did a fantastic job.

“I don’t remember the last time we hit a ball hard. I think we had a gap shot last night against Big Red. We had a few base hits, but we did not hit the ball hard. We have not hit the ball hard all week. We have had a couple gap shots.

“For whatever reason, we have gone flat, and this is a bad time to go flat. We go back at it next week. I think this loss probably drops us down to second place in the OVACs behind Beaver Local. These were two big losses, and we made the girls aware of that. If we were able to get a split in these two games with Big Red and Wheeling Park, we probably could have stayed in first place. Getting swept and losing these two games, we are probably going to drop a spot.

“Again, you have to give credit to the other team’s pitcher. You don’t want to just make excuses. You have to credit the other team’s pitcher. She kept us scoreless for 12 innings. The last pitcher last night for Big Red did a good job.

“We have to do a better job. We have to do a better job of hitting the ball. If we want to repeat as OVAC champions, we have to a much better job of hitting the ball. If you don’t hit the ball, you don’t deserve to win the game, and you are not going to win the game. It just is not going to happen.

“We couldn’t get bunts down. We did not do the fundamental basics. We didn’t get bunts down when we needed to. We did not put the ball in play. We had bad approaches at the plate. We got behind in the count much too often. We have to do a better job at the plate.

“We’re in the big part of our season. We have got a day. We have got Monday. We are going to practice Monday. We are going to have to get out of our doldrums. We have to get back on track.”

The girls from Hancock County collected seven hits in 45 at-bats, while the girls from Ohio County collected seven hits in 38 at-bats.

“Both pitchers pitched well,” Wheeling Park (10-14) Pat Durkin said. “They pitched well. Our girls hit some balls right on the nose, but we hit it right at them. Their pitch caught two or three line drives. She played well. Weir is a good team.”

Catcher Kylah Cunningham drew a walk to lead off the top of the 12th. Brenna Tipton followed with a sacrifice bunt, and Tipton was out on the play as the runner moved up to second, however, an errant Weir throw to second ended up going all the way to the fence in left-center allowing the visitors to score the first run of the game.

“Absolutely, that was an unforced error,” Leary said about the play. I don’t know what our objective was. We typically don’t throw the ball around. We don’t throw the ball. It is not like we had the runner caught between second and third base. It was a mental error that led to a physical error. There was no reason to throw that ball. We made a mistake, and they took advantage.

“We had chances with runners on, but we could not get a bunt down. You have to put pressure on the other team. You have to put pressure on them on defense. One run would have won the game. You have to put pressure on them, and we did not do that. We did not execute the basic fundamentals. We did not put pressure on the defense.

“I think we had a runner on third only once or twice during the game. Again, you have to give credit to their pitcher, but we have to get bunts down. We have to do the basic fundamentals. If we want to get to the next level we want to get to, we need to do a better job of doing the basics. We did not do a very good job of doing the basic things today.”

Following the run, Bryn Ernest singled, and Gracie Tamburin followed with a two-run home run enabling the Patriots to increase their advantage to 3-0. The Red Riders were able to get out of the inning without surrendering any more runs, but the damage had already been done.

Sam Tunno singled with one out in the bottom half of the inning as the hosts attempted to mount a comeback. A strikeout put the visitors one out away from ending the game, and the end came with the next batter as a controversial check swing call went Wheeling Park’s way resulting in the third strike being called ending the game. The field umpire ruled the batter swung at the pitch resulting in the game-ending strikeout.

Both pitchers pitched complete games.

Eliza Utt took the loss for Weir. Utt struck out four and walked two.

Delaney Randolph picked up the win for Wheeling Park. She struck out 10 without walking a batter.

Tamburin’s home run was the only one of the 14 hits in the game to go for extra bases. Each team had one player produce multiple hits in the game.

For Weir, catcher Loganne Barton contributed a pair of singles, while Brynn Artman, Rayna Hoover, Jaidyn Kelly and Utt all collected a single.

Ernest tallied two singles for the visitors, while Isabelle Thomas and Randolph each delivered a single.

The Patriots hit a couple of balls to the warning track in later innings, however, Kelly and Artman made the catches in left and in center.

“Gracie hit one to the track, but that last one she hit for a home run gave us two insurance runs,” Durkin said.

Weir had an opportunity to score a run in the sixth, however, a groundout stranded Hoover at third keeping the game scoreless.

“I haven’t had one of those games since I was at Brooke in the early 2000s,” Leary said. “I was the head coach at Brooke, and we always had very good defensive teams. We played a lot of lower scoring games. I remember whenever we played Spencer Bendle and Edison, it was always a 2-10 or 1-0 ballgame, and some of them went into extra innings like we did today.”

The Red-and-Black had another good opportunity in the 11th. With one out, Hoover and Barton recorded singles to give the home team two runners on base with the winning run in scoring position at second, however, Hoover was forced out at third on a groundball and a groundout to short ended the threat and the inning, setting the table for the Patriots to win the game in the 12th.

“It was an old-fashioned game,” Durkin said. “We got a runner on first, and then we got the bunt down. We moved the runner. We did what we had to do.”

The game was the final one for both team’s prior to the cutoff date to qualify for the annual OVAC Tournament. Today is the cutoff day for team’s to qualify. The top four teams in all five classes qualify for the annual tournament.

The standings were updated Wednesday morning, and the Red Riders were in first place in the Class 4A standings. Weir was followed in the standings by Beaver Local, Harrison Central and Oak Glen. The Red Riders and the Beavers did not play this season, while Weir swept Harrison Central and split with the Oak Glen.

Wheeling Park was sixth in the Class 5A standings.

The final standings will be released late today.

Wheeling Park is scheduled to play Indian Creek at 5 p.m. Monday at home.

The Red Riders are off until Tuesday when Weir will play in the OVAC Class 4A Tournament Semifinals down at the I-470 Complex.

Wheeling Park 3, Weir 0 (12 innings)

Wheeling Park 000 000 000 003 – 3 7 2

Weir 000 000 000 000 – 0 7 1

WHEELING PARK (10-14): Randolph WP (10K, 0BB) and Cunningham. Thomas S; Cunningham S; Tipton S; Ernest 2S; Tamburin HR, 2RBI; Randolph S.

WEIR (21-6): Utt LP (4K, 2BB) and Barton. Utt S; Hoover S; Barton 2S; Kelly S; Tunno S; Artman S.