MORGANTOWN – Morgantown scored three times in the bottom of the fifth and Maddie Wisman made them stand up despite a late Wheeling Park rally for a 3-2 win in the opening game of the W.Va. Class AAAA, Region I, Section I Tournament. With the loss, the Patriots will face John Marshall Thursday in an elimination game in Glen Dale. The first pitch is set for 5. That winner will need to defeat the Mohigans twice for the title. Wheeling Park was limited to five singles. Grace Tamburin drove in one of its two seventh-inning tallies. Liz Alsop belted a two-run double and Gracie Robinson singled twice to drive in a run. Class A Region I, Section II Magnolia 8, Valley 0, 6 inn. NEW MARTINSVILLE – Mallory McDiffitt fired a no-hitter and struck out 12 as the Blue Eagles blanked the Lumberjills in sectional tournament action. She threw 77 pitches, with 51 being strikes. Although Magnolia committed an error, McDiffitt faced the minimum number of batters in the six-inning contest. McDiffitt also belted a two-run double and Jessa Anderson and Sienna McKeever evenly divided four singles and two RBI. Regular Season Shadyside 11, Shenandoah 1 SHADYSIDE – The Tigers belted out 16 hits in zapping the visiting Zeps at the Meade Township Park. Kaylie Warnock and Giovanna Hines each collected three singles, with Warnock plating two runs and Hines one. Ali Weatherson and Brianna Harris each had two singles and a pair of ribbies. Arianna Saxton fanned nine and walked four in tossing a four-hitter. She also singled twice. Barnesville 15, Buckeye Trail 4 BARNESVILLE – Maddy Tyson homered twice and drove in three runs as the Shamrocks bashed out 13 hits in rolling past the visiting Warriors on the Memorial Park diamond. Sophia Carpenter plated four runs with a pair of singles, while Chaela Smolira and Kylee Powell each singled and drove in two runs. Angela Johnson earned the win in relief with five strikeouts and a walk in four innings. Union Local 12, Buckeye Local 5 MORRISTOWN – Ali Kellaway was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle and drove as the Jets soared past the visiting Panthers. She drove in three runs. Myah Martin added a two-run single. Khloe Gallagher and Ev Blakley each singled twice. Danicka Bauknecht singled thrice to pace Buckeye Local. Maddy Roset doubled twice and drove in a run. BASEBALL Indian Creek 4, Martins Ferry 0 MINGO JUNCTION – The Redskins (15-3) prepped for another deep postseason run by blanking the visiting Purple Riders at the John Muth Recreational Complex. Sal Barcalow went the distance on the mound. He struck out six and walked three. He yielded four singles. He threw 98 pitches, of which 58 were strikes. Hunter Shutler pitched well enough to win for the Purple Riders as he fanned four, walked two and gave up four hits in a route-going performance. He threw just 65 pitches, with 45 going for strikes. Hunter Rusnak banged a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth to break open a 2-0 game. Barcalow and Stan Amis had sacrifice flies, while Ian Starkey also doubled. John Marshall 7, Steubenville 2 STEUBENVILLE – Three Monarchs teamed for a six-hitter as they took down Big Red. Tommy Clegg earned the win with five innings of four-hit, one-run ball. He struck out six and walked just one. Jesse McDowel and Kayden Knapp worked one inning each. Knapp singled and doubled to drive in a run, while Mason Markonich singled twice to drive in another. Clegg also had a pair of base hits and an RBI. Hayden Gaiser contributed an RBI. Maddox Gulan singled thrice for Steubenville and drove in a run. Wheeling Central 8, Harrison Central 2 CADIZ – The Maroon Knights celebrated Senior Night at Mazeroski Field with an 8-2 victory over the host Huskies. Eli Sancomb pitched four innings of relief. The southpaw struck out six, walked one and gave up three hits. Koy Lipinski singled and doubled twice to drive in three runs for Wheeling Central. Gary Hatfield singled twice to produce two runs and Kade Koroneos singled, tripled and knocked in a run. Braxton Billick added an RBI triple. Hunter Snyder singled and doubled for Harrison Central. Tucker Snyder had an RBI double and Reed Arbaugh singled in a run.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Chris Berhalter set Andrew Isaac Griffin’s trial in the double murder of Angela and Thomas Strussion to begin at 8:30 a.m. July 15 — nearly four years after the couple was found dead inside their Belmont-area home.

Griffin is accused of double homicide in the September 2021 deaths. He was arrested in Hawaii in February.

Ohio Public Defender Kirk McVay and Belmont County Public Defender Aaron Miller are representing Griffin, with McVay saying that he believes a July 15 start date does not give him enough time to provide his client with a proper defense.

“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t see a way that we could be prepared to move forward on the fact investigation, let alone a mitigation investigation, by July 15,” McVay said.

Berhalter replied that he was going to proceed with setting the trial for July 15 and suggested that if McVay believes he will need additional time to prepare that the court will entertain a motion for a continuance.

“I advise you to make your motion as detailed as possible, that is, specific reasons why you’re seeking that time, not revealing any defense, but what work you still must undertake,” he told McVay.

McVay said he would take that advice and will provide as many details as possible without revealing his defense.

Berhalter then gave McVay a deadline of May 23 to file the motion.

Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan then made a motion seeking a deposition of an unnamed witness who is currently living in Oklahoma. He added that, based on health concerns, he believes the witness’s testimony must be preserved in the deposition for the potential future trial.

“I anticipated the importance of that particular witness, and due to the fact that we received almost 500 gigabytes of discovery and had little to no opportunity to do any investigation, including any investigation that was possible in this potential witness that they wanted to pose on that basis, we anticipate we will be opposing that motion,” McVay said.

Berhalter told McVay that he has 14 days to file his opposition to Flanagan’s motion.

“Now I’m going to reserve making a decision as to whether that deposition will be admissible at trial. However, I am going to allow the deposition to proceed,” Berhalter said.

He then asked Flanagan how long he believes the deposition will take. Flanagan replied that he doesn’t anticipate it lasting longer than three hours.

“Unlike some of our other witnesses, there isn’t a whole lot of history here. There’s an alleged statement made by the defendant, and that’s pretty much what we are going to get into,” Flanagan said.

Berhalter then set the deposition for 2:30 p.m. June 2 in the common pleas courtroom. He added that a pretrial date will be set during the deposition.