WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
West Virginia will enter the Big 12 Baseball Championship the No. 4 seed after wrapping up the regular season Saturday with a 6-5 win against TCU at Lupton Stadium,
The Mountaineers (33-20, 19-11 Big 12) and No. 9 Horned Frogs (31-19, 14-16) are set to battle again in the second game of the Big 12 Baseball Championship when it begins Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Reed Chumley led the way with four RBI in the latest victory, which allowed WVU to secure a series victory.
Chumley’s three-run home run punctuated the Mountaineers’ four-run eighth inning, allowing a 2-1 lead to grow to five runs.
WVU needed every bit of it as TCU got a two-run double from Chase Brunson to pull to within two, before Jack Arthur’s run-scoring single cut the Horned Frogs’ deficit in half.
Luke Lyman then came on and struck out Brody Green to seal the result.
West Virginia won seven of its 10 Big 12 series and three of its last four.
Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship Schedule
May 21-25 at Globe Life Field — Arlington, Texas
Note: All Games air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ unless otherwise indicated
Tuesday, May 21
Game 1: No. 6 Kansas State vs. No. 7 Kansas, 10 a.m.
Game 2: No. 4 West Virginia vs. No. 9 TCU, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 5 Cincinnati vs. No. 8 UCF, 5 p.m.
Game 4: No. 3 Texas vs. No. 10 Texas Tech, 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 22
Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m. (ESPNU)
Game 6: No. 1 Oklahoma vs. Lower-seeded winner of Games 1 & 2, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 5 p.m.
Game 8: No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. Lower-seeded winner of Games 3 & 4, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 23
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 10: Game 6 winner vs. Higher-seeded winner of Games 1 & 2, 1 p.m.
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 loser, 5 p.m. (ESPNU)
Game 12: Game 8 winner vs. Higher-seeded winner of Games 3 & 4, 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Friday, May 24
Game 13: Game 10 loser vs. Game 9 winer, 10 a.m.
Game 14: Game 10 winner vs. Game 13 winner (semifinal), 1:30 p.m.
Game 15: Game 12 loser vs. Game 11 winner, 5 p.m.
Game 16: Game 12 winner vs. Game 15 winner (semifinal), 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 25
Game 17: Championship, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For the first time since 2016, Cabell Midland can celebrate a boys Class AAA state track championship. The Knights scored 108 points and they were buoyed by three wins on Saturday.
In the 800 meter run, Tristan Blatt shattered the previous state meet record by over two seconds (1:51.12). Teammate Aidan Kneeland and University’s Drew Zundell all posted times better than the previous record.
Marshall football signee Michael Lunsford won the shot put by over ten feet with a winning toss of 65 feet, 3.75 inches. And the Knights won the 4×200 relay with future WVU linebacker Curtis Jones, Jr. running the third leg.
Hurricane finished as the state runners-up. Ty Steorts set a state meet record in the 1600 meter run at 4:07.75.
Huntington came in a point behind the Redskins in third place. The Highlanders won the 4×100 relay with Mikey Johnson running anchor leg and WVU football commit Zah Jackson on the first leg.
Jefferson finished fourth. Future Mountaineer football player Keyshawn Robinson won the 200 and 400 meter runs en route to high point honors. His future WVU teammate, Dom Collins won the 100 meter in his first year running track.
“I was going to camps in the summer and dropping insane 40 [yard dash] times,” Collins said. “Coaches were like, ‘You don’t run track?’ I said, ‘No’. They were like, ‘Go run track and you’ll be a state champion’. And they were right.”
“In my last season, I was trying to get as much as I can,” Robinson said. “I’ve been hurt a little bit during the season but I have been trying to push through and do my own thing.”
Spring Valley’s Dalton Ferguson swept the hurdle events. In other events, Gradian Graham of Spring Mills won the discus and Parkersburg South took the 4×400 relay.
For the second year in a row, the Morgantown and Jefferson girls decided the state championship in the final event. Last year, the Cougars and the Mohigans tied for the title. On Saturday, Jefferson won the 4×400 relay to win the outright championship, ten points ahead of MHS.
In addition to the final event, Jefferson won six more events on Saturday, including the 4×200 (state record time of 1:43.11) and 4×100 relays. Jazmyn Taylor won the 100 meter en route to high points honors. Hannah Phillips won the 1600 and 800 meters and Samantha Ogden won the pole vault.
Huntington finished third behind Morgantown. Mallori Dunn-Martin swept the 300 and 100 hurdle events.
Elsewhere, Preston’s Ella White won the 400 meter. Ama Ackon-Annan of Woodrow Wilson won the 200 meter and Hampshire’s Kaylie Hall claimed victory in the discus.
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(Photo galleries by Teran Malone)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Photo galleries from the WVSLA Division 1 state championship games at University H.S. The George Washington boys defeated University, 14-8 while the UHS girls defeated Fairmont Senior, 6-5 in triple overtime.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Both Class AA state track championship trophies will once again reside at Winfield High School. The Winfield boys pulled away from defending champion Point Pleasant late on Saturday afternoon, claiming their first title since 2022.
The Generals were paced by individual high point champion Justin Lipscomb. He won the 3200 meter run on Friday and followed that up with a win in the 1600 meter in a state record time (4:13.77) and a victory in the 800 meter. Winfield also collected two more wins on Saturday. Chase Massey won the 100 meter run by .02 seconds and their 4×400 relay team closed out the meet with another victory.
Runner-up Point Pleasant collected one win on Saturday. Reece Hunt raced to victory in the 110 hurdles.
The Frankfort Falcons finished third in the team competition. Cohen Arbogast won the 400 and 200 meter runs and the Falcons scored another victory in the 4×200 relay.
East Fairmont’s Dakota Dammyer swept the throwing events. He won the discus on Saturday by nearly 20 feet with a toss of 171 feet, 7 inches. Elsewhere in field events, Nicholas County’s Isaiah Miner won the high jump and Poca’s Landon Coleman won the long jump.
Back on the track, Weir won the 4×100 relay and Roane County’s Lane Watson defended his title in the 300 hurdles.
Just like Williamstown in Class A, the Winfield girls won their fifth consecutive state championship. The Generals had only one event win on Saturday but their depth in several events showed as they scored 99.83 points. Carlie Sibold won the 100 meter run for WHS.
Oak Glen finished as the Class AA runner-up. Hannah Kliner won the 1600 meter on Saturday after winning the 3200 meter on Friday. Kensington McConnachie also collected a win for Oak Glen in the long jump.
Weir finished in third place. Olivia Baker was a double-winner with victories in the 100 and 200 meters. Their 4×400 relay team also collected a victory as well.
Grafton came in fourth. Hadley Horne won the 300 hurdles and she finished as the individual high point champion in Class AA. Emily Viani added a win for the Bearcats in the 800 meter.
Other event victories included the Bluefield 4×100 relay team, the Fairmont Senior 4×200 relay team, Poca’s Kendra Dunbar in the shot put, Nitro’s Isabella Cowger in the discus and Lincoln’s Hannah Rowan in the 400 meter.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The 2023 Class A state champions will hold their titles for at least another year. The Buffalo boys and Williamstown girls each cleared the hundred-point plateau to win state track championships on Saturday.
Buffalo pulled away late to win their second consecutive title. Nicholas Pitchford earned high point honors. He won the 3200 meter run on Friday and followed that up with a state-record time (4:17.20) and victory in the 1600. He also won the 800 meters and Cole Whittington won the 300 meter hurdles.
Doddridge County is the state runner-up. Their event victory on Saturday came from Sage Landis in the pole vault.
Wheeling Central Catholic collected three wins. JJ White won the 400 meters, as did their 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams.
Wyatt Milhoan of Ravenswood is a double winner. He crossed the line first in the 100 and 200 meter runs.
Other event victories included Dubale Greathouse of Magnolia winning the high jump. Isaac Agee of Greenbrier West won the 110 hurdles and the Ritchie County 4×400 meter relay team set a new state record (3:28.65).
Williamstown claimed their fifth consecutive girls title in familiar fashion. Junior Alyssa Sauro now owns nine individual event titles at the state meet. After winning the 3,200 meter run on Friday night, Sauro cruised to victory in the 1,600 and the 800 (new state record of 2:15.69) on Saturday. The Jackets also won the 4×200 meter relay.
Doddridge County is the state runner-up. The Bulldogs won a pair of relays on Saturday, taking home titles in the 4×100 and the 4×400 relays.
Trinity finished in third place. 38 of their 59 points came from freshman Elecia McCurrie. She burst on the scene by setting state records in the 100 (11.98 in final), 200 (24.87 in preliminaries) and 400 (55.70 in final) meter runs while finishing second in the long jump.
“It is not expected for a freshman to come out here and win first place and break records at a state track meet,” McCurrie said. “I just came in today and I was like, ‘I want to be the unexpected. I want to come out here and go after records, do my best and give my all. That’s what I did.”
Another state record fell in the pole vault with Ritchie County’s Sydney Kopshina setting a new mark at 11 feet, 8 inches.
Magnolia’s Jenna Blain claimed a pair of titles by winning both the 300 hurdles and the 100 hurdles.
Other event winners included Valley Wetzel’s Laken Dawson in the long jump and Carlee Dillard of Richwood in the high jump.
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(Photo gallery by Teran Malone)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Photo galleries from the WVSLA Division 2 State Championship games. The Hedgesville girls defeated Martinsburg in overtime, 8-7. The Hedgesville boys defeated Mountain State, 17-9.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The University Police Department will hold training exercises in the coming weeks on the Morgantown campus.
Captain Matthew Swain directs the Training, Investigations, Dispatch divisions and will lead these exercises designed to prepare officers to quickly respond to a wide variety of situations.
“We at the West Virginia University Police Department take training very seriously,” Cpt. Swain said. “We want to make sure we’re staying up to date and that our officers receive top notch training so they are prepared for any situation.”
Swain said the field problems will be more like drills that require an immediate coordinated response. The simulations could be anything from a verbal argument to a non-compliant suspect with a gun.
“We’re going to throw a lot of different scenarios at our officers, at our dispatchers to make we’re preparing them for situations that could occur,” Cpt. Swain said. “We hope that never do, but we always want to be prepared.”
Swain said they are moving the focus away from active shooter scenarios, but it is still taught. These exercises could deal with legally armed suspects involved in disputes that refuse to cooperate.
“This year with campus carry coming we want to make sure we’re training our officers how to handle other situations,” Swain said.
The days and times of the sessions will be held until the last possible moment to preserve the training value. One focus of the exercise is to test the ability of officers to gain control and de-escalate a situation.
“Every call is going to be a little bit different. There will be some involving weapons, there will be some focusing on de-escalation,” Swain said. ” Making sure our officers are prepared to talk to individuals are be prepared to not escalate a situation.”
Swain said they will communicate via social media and official channels so people will have some advance warning. Some safety personnel will also be in and around the exercise to inform those who might be nearby.
“If they hear folks screaming and things like that it will be clearly marked and labeled where we’ll be,” Swain said.” We’ll have a bunch of safety officers around making sure everything is taken care of so everybody knows it’s a training scenario.”
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom says he wants to heal old wounds to build trust among members of the homeless community.
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” he responded to calls for a meeting with municipalities in the county and non-profit organizations to find solutions.
“So, if we’re going to get together, we need the right people in the room,” Bloom said. “The bottom line is this: whether it’s the state or a non-profit, somebody is going to have to step forward and solve this problem.”
The wounds, he said, were caused by the Diamond Village encampment off Pennsylvania Avenue along Deckers Creek and the aftermath of the Home for the Holidays program. Diamond Village came with a wave of drug and property crime in the neighborhood, and significant damage was reported to rental properties during the Home for the Holidays program.
“That is the big effect that Diamond Village had—you lost the landlords that were willing to help; you’ve got people screaming and yelling at each other and not solving the problem.”
Before Diamond Village, Bloom said the working relationship between the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, the United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties, and the city of Morgantown was far from perfect, but things did get done. The Home for the Holidays program placed nearly thirty people in homes in a 30-day period.
“When the four of us would work together, we could move slowly, but here’s the first thing: we need solutions, not complaints,” Bloom said.
One of the barriers to getting into treatment for many is the $1,000 cost to enter the West Virginia Sober Center. Bloom has encouraged those workers to apply for opioid grants from the commission to cover the cost of 20 people entering treatment. The program includes wrap-around services to keep the person on the road to recovery after initial treatment.
“I know it isn’t 120, but if you start at 20 and start small, you can grow that,” Bloom said. “Then someone may have another suggestion.”
Reorganizing the local efforts to help those in need will be a process that will result in a reliable system but won’t bring immediate gains. Finding small efforts like the $1,000 grant program for people to get into treatment can ultimately develop a series of services that can be offered.
“We’re not going to solve the opioid problem; we’re not going to solve the homeless problem right away,” Bloom said. “What we need to do is start working in our community to find what will help those individuals in need.”
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Appalachian Power is trying to meet its future clean energy needs.
The company says they are seeking proposals for renewable energy and battery energy storage resources. Three Requests for Proposals (RFPs) were issued Friday for wind, solar, battery energy storage systems, and renewable energy certificates.
Under the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), Appalachian Power must meet annual escalating Renewable Energy Portfolio (RPS) requirements in order to deliver 100% carbon-free energy to its customers in Virginia by the year 2050. The company is also looking for bids for solar and battery energy storage resources in West Virginia due to Senate Bill 583.
“The advertised RFPs play an important role in helping us meet our clean energy commitments,” said Aaron Walker, Appalachian Power President and COO. “These projects will also support local communities by generating jobs and tax base.”
The first RFP requests bids for up to 800 megawatts (MW) of wind and/or solar resources. It also mentions co-located and standalone battery energy storage systems. Appalachian Power will look to acquire completed projects or ones in the development stage through one or more purchase and sale agreements (PSAs). The company says they prefer projects located in Virginia or on eligible sites in West Virginia.
The RFP reads, “Eligible sites in West Virginia are those previously used in electric generation, industrial, manufacturing or mining operations, including, but not limited to, brownfields, closed landfills, hazardous waste sites, former industrial sites, and former mining sites. Facilities must achieve a commercial operation date of no later than Dec. 15, 2028, and be within the PJM region and/or interconnected to the Appalachian Power distribution system.”
Only resources that interconnect to PJM and are at least 50 MW in size for wind and solar and 10 MW in size for standalone battery energy storage systems qualify to be considered. Resources that interconnect to the Appalachian Power distribution system must be at least 10 MW in size.
The second RFP requests bids for up to 300 MW of solar and/or wind resources from one or more long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). Under a PPA, the company enters into an agreement for the energy, capacity, ancillary services, and environmental attributes including renewable energy certificates (RECs) from facilities located within the PJM region and/or interconnected to the Appalachian Power distribution system. Resources must be at least 50 MW in size for wind and 5 MW in size for solar and be operational by Dec. 31, 2028 to be considered.
The third RFP focuses on renewable energy certificates (RECs). A REC is a market-based instrument issued when one megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and then delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource. All RECs purchased must be produced from eligible energy resources, per the RFP.
Bidders may submit proposals for contract terms between five and 30 years starting on Jan. 1, 2027. Alternative terms will also be considered.
RFP participation criteria, required forms, and other information sought by businesses can be found online at www.appalachianpower.com/rfp. Proposals must be submitted by July 16, 2024.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Public Service Commission Chair Charlotte Lane is urging a federal court to halt the application of a proposed federal air pollution control rule until it can be fully litigated.
Lane on Wednesday filed a 27-page document in support of the lawsuit. She encouraged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to grant a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to implement new carbon emissions standards on July 8.
“The targets and technologies mandated by the Final Rule are an obvious pernicious effort to ensure the shutdown of coal-fired power plants in less than six years when they could otherwise operate for sixteen years or more,” Lane stated. “The Final Rule does not simply encourage, but effectively mandates, early retirement of coal-fired, baseload, dispatchable generation that is necessary to maintain the reliability and resilience of the electric power grid.”
Lane said the rule’s goals are unrealistic, it would threaten electric power reliability across the nation and would destroy West Virginia’s economy.
“I cannot imagine a worse plan for providing adequate, reliable, safe and affordable electricity service than the premature retirement of reliable base load dispatchable steam-driven power plants and substituting for that lost capacity and energy up to ten times more megawatts of less reliable intermittent power supplies as will result from the EPA Final Rule,” Lane stated.
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