Nick Henthorn GETTING IT DOWN — Weir High's Lila Boilegh gets a bunt down during Tuesday's OVAC Class 4A semifinal against Edison.

WHEELING — What a difference a year makes.

After suffering an upset defeat in last season’s OVAC semifinals, this year’s Red Riders squad put on a two-way display in routing Edison 9-1 to advance to the 4A championship, a result that surprised Weir head coach John Leary.

“Last year we were kind of favored, and we got upset,” Leary said. “The previous year we won it. Last year we were in the playoffs and Harrison Central outplayed us and we lost in this game, in the semifinals. And coming into this year, this is kind of unexpected for us because we had to basically rebuild our team. We had four kids returning and we had eight completely new players.

“This is a pleasant surprise because they’ve played hard all year, put themselves in a position to be here and then took advantage of it.”

Tuesday was the rubber match between the No. 3 Red Riders and the No. 2 Wildcats, with Weir defeating Edison 16-1 on April 9, and Edison defeating Weir 10-5 on April 16.

“They were hoping that we would get to play Edison in this game,” Leary said. “Because we had split during the regular season. We won the first one, they won the second. We won the first one decisively, they won the second one decisively. So this is kind of the rubber match.”

Eliza Utt started in the circle for Weir, throwing five shutout innings before giving up one run in the sixth, then throwing a clean seventh inning to close out the game. The Salem University commit struck out four, allowed five hits, and induced plenty of weak contact in popups and groundouts.

“I’m very, very proud of Eliza,” Leary said. “Last time when we played them over there, when they beat us decisively, they knocked her out of the game. She had pitched a lot that week and she was tired and I just felt we got to the point in about the third inning of that game, we had other games coming up and I just pulled her out. That was the first time I ever had to take her out in the middle of a game, ever.

“I think she kind of took that personal, she wasn’t real happy about that. And she came out today and she was just phenomenal, pitched a great game for us. Set the tone for us, held them down. And they put a lot of balls in play, to their credit, because they’re a good program, they’re a good team. She did an excellent job with her location today. She was in the zone and hitting her spots and just pitched really well for us. We’re very proud of her.”

Weir struck early, getting on the board with one run in the top of the first and posting five runs in the second inning to pull away.

Bella Weber led Weir in RBI with three, collecting three hits including a double. Utt had two hits of her own– a single and a triple– and walked twice.

Utt, Loganne Barton, Zoey Spencer, Illiona Kirlangitis and Lexi Shockley all tallied RBI for the Red Riders.Spencer also had a multi-hit day with two base knocks.

“Well, we really harped on that when we had practice yesterday, we talked about the fact that the first time we played them, we jumped on them early and got some early runs and gave Eliza a little bit of a cushion to pitch with,” Leary said about his team’s fast start at the plate. “And we kind of did that today. We jumped on them early, and in the second inning, we bumped it up to 6-nothing. (Utt) pitched great, but it’s always easier to pitch when you have a big lead because you can just throw the ball over the plate and see what happens. That was a big help for her too.”

Alivia Hanlin got Edison on the board in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double.

No. 3 Weir will face No. 1 Beaver Local on Thursday in the 4A championship.