Andrew Grimm HEADED BACK TO STATE — The Weir High softball team celebrates after winning their regional bracket to advance to the state tournament for a second-straight season.

Weir High jumped on visiting Ravenswood early and did not look back, rolling to a 9-1, run-rule victory in the Class AA, Region 1 Bracket 1 final on Thursday evening at the Roberta “Birdie” DeFrancis Softball Field, earning a trip to the state tournament for a second-straight year.

“I’m really happy for the kids,” Weir High head coach John Leary said. “For the girls that are back from last year, they got a taste of it and that gave them motivation to get back. These kids have put in a lot of hard work and I’m happy for them to see it pay off with a trip to the state tournament.

“We wanted to come out and take care of business today and not have to play that winner-take-all game, we wanted to put it away. You don’t want to give a team life, we’ve seen that bite us in years past. I’m glad we were able to finish this off and start getting ready for the state tournament.”

Weir, the top seed in Region 1, defeated Ravenswood in both of its regional games to earn the return trip to Charleston. The Red Riders made the state tournament last season in Class AAA under the old format.

Andrew Grimm RUNNING HARD — Weir High's Brynn Artman runs to third base after a teammate hit the ball.

“It’s a different format this year, it’ll be interesting to see how the seeding works,” Leary said. “Our focus will be on going down there and playing well and taking care of what we can control. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season we would be going back to the state tournament, I would have taken that regardless of the seed. We had some kids back, but we had a lot of new players and are a different team. I’m just really happy for these girls seeing their work pay off.”

After getting off to a slow start against the fourth-seeded Devils (10-11) on Tuesday, not scoring until the fourth inning, the Red Riders (21-8) got off to a much quicker start on Thursday.

Weir plated four runs in the bottom of the first inning, all with two outs. The Red Riders had a three-run third inning that all-but put things away, and all of those runs also came with two outs. Weir took full advantage of four Ravenswood errors as well, as each miscue ended up in a Weir High run.

“To say we harped on getting off to a better start (Wednesday) in practice would be an understatement, we got on them about not coming out slow,” Leary said. “At this point of the season you’re going to be playing good teams and you can’t afford to start slow, you have to come out aggressive and put the ball in play and they listened, today we came out and did that right from the start.”

Senior ace Eliza Utt was strong again for the Red Riders, striking out four and walking one in five innings. After giving up back-to-back singles to open the game, she retired the next seven-straight and 12 of the next 13. She also had an RBI at the plate on a sac fly.

Andrew Grimm THROWING MOTION — Weir High pitcher Eliza Utt delivers against Ravenswood.

Freshman Lila Boilegh tallied a triple and an RBI on a sac fly, while senior catcher Loganne Barton tallied two doubles and Brynn Artman, from the No. 9 hole in the order, had two singles and an RBI. Zoe Spencer also recorded an RBI single.

“At times this year the bottom half of our line up has came through with some big hits for us and it’s nice to see when that happens, it was good to see that today,” Leary said.

The Red Riders will have a break before the state tournament as the Class AA portion does not begin until May 27. Leary said the Red Riders may pick up a couple of games in the meantime.

“I give a lot of credit to my coaching staff,” Leary said of assistant coaches Joe Aperfine, Jenna Wilson and Marissa Galliano. “I think I have the best staff in the state of West Virginia. They do an outstanding job of getting our kids ready to play every game.”

WVSSAC Class AA Tournament

Andrew Grimm MAKING PLAYS — Weir High shortstop Lila Boilegh fires to first for an out.

Region 1, Bracket 1 Championship

No. 1 Weir High 9, No. 4 Ravenswood 1

R 0-0-0 0-1-x x — 1 3 4

W 4-1-3 1-x-x x — 9 8 0

RAVENSWOOD (10-11): Caldwell (LP, 4IP, 9R, 2ER, 8H, 2K, 4BB) and Whited. Whited S; Caldwell S; Oliver S; Smith RBI.

Andrew Grimm ON THE MOVE — Weir High pinch runner Gracie Trifonoff runs the bases.

WEIR HIGH (21-8): Utt (WP, CG, 1R, 1ER, 3H, 4K, 1BB) and Barton. Boilegh T, RBI; Utt RBI; Weber S; Barton 2D; Spencer S, RBI; Shockley S; Artman 2S, RBI.