Photo by Kim North Wheeling Central catcher Koy Lipinski lunges to tag out Linsly’s Dom Fato during the first inning Monday night at the St. Clairsville Junior Sports Complex. The Cadets posted a 14-1 victory in five innings over the Maroon Knights.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Wheeling Central had Linsly starting pitcher Tucker Doty on the ropes in the bottom of the first inning Monday afternoon, however, the Maroon Knights couldn’t deliver the knockout punch. The Cadets’ lanky right-hander made them pay.

Doty, a senior, went the distance and his teammates backed him with a 16-hit attack in a 14-1 thumping of Wheeling Central (6-4) in five innings on the Unified Bank Field at the St. Clairsville Junior Sports Complex.

“We missed a couple of plays that we should’ve had in that first inning and it could’ve been different for Tucker,” veteran Linsly head coach Jay Cartwight said. “That’s a good hitting team, so you know you’re not going to shut them out but Tucker is a senior that can throw the ball hard, move it around and change speeds. He’s fun to watch pitch.”

Doty, now 4-0, threw 29 of his 90 pitches in the opening inning as Jake Brown doubled leading off. He then walked Zayne Rosnick before striking out the next batter. Brown and Rosnick pulled off a double steal and the throw to third sailed into left as Brown raced home for a 1-0 lead. Consecutive walks to Brady Ernest and Kade Koroneos loaded the bases, but Doty recorded another strikeout before a flyball to left got him out of further trouble.

“I just trusted my defense, threw strikes and trusted myself that I could get out of the inning,” Doty said of the Houdini-like escape. “It was all about trusting those guys behind me.”

Deadlocked at one entering the top of the fourth, Linsly (10-3-1) sent 11 batters to the plate against Akron University commit Brayden Cover, with seven scoring on half-a-dozen hits. Dom Fato’s two-run single jump-started the outburst and Jaxon Murray followed with a three-run blast well over the 350-sign in dead center for a 6-1 advantage. Brodi Prout contributed a two-run single to cap the inning.

Doty was in total command as he allowed a one-out walk in the second before that runner was thrown out trying to steal. He yielded a two-out double in the third to Ernest and a leadoff two-bagger to Clay Petry in the fourth. A walk to Brown and a single by Rosnick put the Maroon Knights in business in the bottom of the fifth, but Doty struck out a batter before inducing a game-ending double play.

“They hit the ball and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Wheeling Central head coach Todd Cover said. “Sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield. Today we were the bug, unfortunately. Hat’s off to their pitcher. We had him on the ropes and could only get one run off of him. That changed the momentum early on, but that’s a good team over there. We’ll come back tomorrow ready to play.”

Preston Hartley crushed a grand slam homer in the top of the fifth as Linsly put six runs on the board. Vinny Gorrence had an RBI single and Rhyder Dlesk got an RBI on a groundout.

“If there is a better player in the Ohio Valley, I want to see him,” Cartwright raved of Murray. “I think he’s been the best player in the Ohio Valley in the last two years. He’s barrelling everything up right now.”

Murray paced the Cadets’ hit parade as he came up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. Gorrence slapped three singles, while Fato and Doty evenly split four one-base raps. All nine positions in the order had at least one hit and seven different Cadets had at least one RBI.

Doty struck out four, walked a like number and scattered four hits. Of his 90 offerings, less than half (49) went for strikes.

“Everyone in our lineup is swinging the bat really well right now,” Cartwright continued. “Even the guys in the lower part. Vinny had three hits and Rhyder had a nine-pitch at bat. When the bottom of your order does that, it shows that we came to play.”

Wheeling Central plays at Oak Glen on Tuesday, while Linsly travels to Shadyside.