Photo by Nick Henthorn Martins Ferry’s Ayden Ludolph throws a pitch against Wheeling Central on Monday, April 29 in an OVAC Semifinals match inside the

WHEELING — A first-inning surged set the tone for the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights’ OVAC 3A Semifinals victory over the Martins Ferry Purple Riders, the No. 2-seeded Knights blazing past the No. 3-seeded Riders 11-1.

Central scored five runs in the first inning to grab hold of a lead they would only build upon.

“We knew they had a tough pitcher, a kid who I coached in travel ball growing up,” Wheeling Central head coach Todd Cover said. “We knew we had to face a pretty good pitcher and so it was huge for us to come out and jump on them early, get a couple runs early and be able to relax our guys a little bit. I thought we had quality at-bats all day long against them, and that’s what’s going to win games.”

Central sent 10 to the plate in the bottom of the first. Seth Cover was the first to drive in a runner by slapping a ground ball to an awkward spot between first and second with the bases loaded, and beating out the throw to first.

Brayden Cover and Hunter Mueller each came through for two-RBI hits as Central twice loaded the bases in the frame.

“A bad first inning and it snowballed from there,” Martins Ferry head coach Anthony Reasbeck said. “I thought we showed a little bit of fight, but when you’re down 5-0 to a good team like this, you’re fighting– not an uphill battle, you’re fighting up a mountain. That’s where we found ourselves and that’s how it went. It kind of was what it was at that point.”

Mueller was the designated hitter Monday, and took the duties to heart by driving in five runs on a pair of hits, one a double, out of the eight-hole.

Brayden Cover and Luke Tiu each had two RBI, Tiu’s coming from a two-run double.

Cover was the seven hitter and Tiu the nine hitter Monday as Central got nine of their 11 RBI from the bottom third of their lineup.

“We balance it,” Cover said. “It’s not like our ninth hitter is the ninth-best hitter on our team, he’s a good RBI guy. That’s what we have him there for. Same with the seven-eight guys, we try to balance our lineup where we have no easy outs. They came through today, and really they’ve been coming through all season so it was no surprise to me.”

Ayden Ludolph took the loss on the mound for Ferry, striking out four over five and one-third innings, while Steven Brodegard pitched the full six innings in a win for Central, racking up 11 strikeouts in a sparkling showing.

“He’s a kid who throws hard, he’s got a curveball and he mixed in a changeup today,” Cover said. “When you can throw three pitches for strikes it’s hard for hitters to adjust or sit on one. When you can do that, pitching’s pretty easy sometimes.”

Koy Lipinski also had an RBI for the Maroon Knights, and the home team had a clean bill on defense with no errors.

“Our M.O. is going to be pitching and defense,” Cover said. “I have kind of an internal calculation where if you add our walks and errors and it’s less than five, we’re probably going to be in good shape at the end of the game. I thought that was the case today, Steven threw ball really well, threw all three pitches for strikes. When you do that, it’s easy to call a game.”

Ludolph drove in a run for Ferry, while Baron Lucey had two hits and a stolen base.

Wheeling Central is set to play Linsly in the OVAC 3A Championship, tentatively set for Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Edison Unified Sports Complex in Richmond.

“Anytime you can get a chance to win a championship it’s exciting for you,” Cover said. “These kids have worked hard at it so we’ll see who comes out of the Linsly-Barnesville game and we’ll be ready for them.”