By Rich Stevens
MaxPreps.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Mountain State has a unique feel, from its unusual geography to a small-town feel at virtually every turn of its windy country roads.
Still, every high school baseball fan knows who John Lowery is.
Jefferson High’s Lowery became the 10th coach in high school history to win 1,000 games when the Cougars defeated Freedom (Va.), 10-0.
Lowery is the only coach in the 36-year history of Jefferson, which is the state’s 14th-largest school, thanks in large part to its location – Shenandoah Junction is less than an hour drive from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The Cougars have won nine state championships, an average of one every four years since the school opened.
Lowery is a member of the West Virginia Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame – which is on display at Charleston’s Appalachian Power Park.
NORTH
Wheeling Central has been the state’s top Class A baseball program, winning four state championships since 1999. However, the Maroon Knights aren’t unbeatable, as Weir’s Pat Duke and Steve Buffo proved.
Duke hit a grand slam and Buffo struck out 10 in the Red Riders’ 10-2 victory over Wheeling Central.
In one of the biggest early season match-ups in the Northern Panhandle, Buffo walked eight batters.
FOOTBALL
Wheeling Central, which has won four consecutive Class A championships, will play Ohio power Steubenville on Oct. 17.
The Maroon Knights, a private school in Wheeling, boasts only 294 students in grades 9-11, while Steubenville – a public school in Ohio’s Division II – has almost double the enrollment (513) and has won 50 consecutive regular-season games.
In four words – It could get ugly.
Steubenville is generally considered pound-for-pound one of the top football programs in a state which boasts more than 120 Division II football-playing schools, compared to fewer than that in all three West Virginia classes combined.
CENTRAL
Nitro senior left-hander Chase Pickering continues to increase the speed on his fastball – it’s in the mid- to upper-80s now – and the attention he receives.
The 6-foot-3 pitcher and leadoff hitter has been followed by Major League scouts early in the season while continuing to adjust to baseball after a long basketball season, during which he was a starting forward.
Pickering had 46 stolen bases last season and played center field when he didn’t pitch. Nitro was in the state tournament last season, where it lost to Beckley in the semifinals.
In his first game of the season, he had 14 strikeouts in six innings.
Also, All-State shortstop Josh Birthisel had a home run and two RBI as defending Class AA champion Herbert Hoover debuted under first-year coach Brian Young with a 5-2 victory over Class AAA Ripley.
Ripley won the 2004 Class AAA state title.
SOUTH
Van High has five state baseball titles. While the Bulldogs seek their sixth, they’ll do it with three players who are legacies from former Van successful teams.
The Bulldogs, who reached the state tournament in 2007, will be led this season by senior Matt Slone – whose father Teddy played on the 1982 Van team which won the Class AA title (Van is now Class A).
Jarrod Thomas, a senior on this year’s team, also had a father on the 1982 squad while Scott Branham’s late uncle Tim “Bo” Branham earned All-Tournament that season.
STATEWIDE
A handful of 2007 All-State players return. In Class AAA, Beckley catcher Lanny Meadows is a junior and batted .400 last season. He and Pickering are the only returning All-State first-team picks from last season.
In Class AA, Magnolia’s top player, Andrew Robinson, returns for his junior year after striking out 72 batters in 52 innings last year. Others earning first-team All-State are Josh Motto – who transferred from Chapmanville to Logan (two schools in Logan County) – Birthisel of Hoover and Motto’s former teammate, Josh Mahaffey of Chapmanville.
In Class A, several underclassmen impressed last season, led by Notre Dame’s Preston Musgrave, a senior this season. Also returning is Musgrave’s teammate, Chris Stanton; East Hardy’s Jeremiah and Jacob Bowman; Man’s Trevor Corns; Wheeling Central’s R.J. Miller; Gilmer County’s Ethan Szabo; Wirt County’s Adam Brogdon and Buffalo’s Jason Lewis, who was considered one of the state’s top freshmen in all class last year.
Rich Stevens, a sportswriter for the Charleston Daily Mail, covers West Virginia for MaxPreps.
