No. 1 Potomac State edges No. 5 Catonsville, 7-6, in Region 20 tourney

KEYSER, W.Va. — WVU Potomac State sophomore Skyla Compton knows what it takes to lift a Region 20 championship.

Compton — one of two returning players from the Catamounts’ region title team, the school’s fourth in a row — is known for her power hitting, but she started a rally in the sixth with her hustle in a tie game with Catonsville.

Compton served a two-strike delivery off the end of the bat softy near second base, and the shortstop dove and kicked the ball into shallow right field. The heads-up sophomore turned on the jets and legged out a double.

Delaney Randolph drove her in with a sacrifice fly two batters later, Lacie Miller retired the side in order in the seventh and top-seeded Potomac State kicked off the Region 20 Division 2 Final Four with a gritty 7-6 victory over fifth-seeded CCBC Catonsville on Friday.

“I want our team to feel a little rattled by that because this is a different environment than the regular season,” said Compton, one of two Potomac State sophomores along with Miller.

“We’ve got a lot of freshmen, so they’re not used to it, and everybody’s out for blood. I think that us realizing that a team that we beat twice. Yeah, we beat them again, but it was close, and they were beating us. I think it’s really going to help for the rest of the season.”

Potomac State (32-5) routed Catonsville (22-20-1) by a combined 18-1 across two regular-season meetings. With Randolph, who no-hit the Cardinals in one of those games, in the circle, the Catamounts were rightly confident.

Catonsville came to play, taking advantage of a pair of defensive gaffes in the first inning to net two unearned runs and three total.

Potomac State led for the first time in the third when Mountain Ridge graduate Jaianna Wickline lined a run-scoring single the other way — she was 2 for 2 — but Catonsville plated three unanswered tallies to take a 6-4 edge midway through the fifth.

Moorefield alumna Carlee Haines grounded a two-run single to left for a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the fifth, the final run before the game-winner.

“Adversity,” Potomac State skipper Chris Greise said of his takeaway. “We dug a hole in the first inning, got down three, gave them a couple free runs. We nipped back, they’d climb back in front of us.”

Fortunately for the Catamounts, they made the final climb, set up by Compton’s hustle.

Compton has a team-high 19 big flies — a reputation well known given the three walks she drew in her first three plate appearances — but her leadership was on full display in her final at-bat.

“I knew that it was a situation where I had to get there in scoring position, especially with no outs,” she said. “It was a tight game at that point, so I really needed to get there to be able to score.”

Katelyn Cooper, who was 2 for 4, also played a part, elevating a pitch to center field to move Compton to third for Randolph’s sacrifice.