Buckhannon-Upshur capped a dominant postseason run with a 15-3 rout of Jefferson County on Saturday in Charleston to win the WVSLA Division II state championship. The Bucs outscored three playoff opponents 47-8 on the way to the title.
Buckhannon-Upshur enters the South Regional Tournament as the No. 6 seed and will travel to No. 3 Cabell Midland on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. first-round matchup. The Buccaneers finished 14-13 and ended the regular season ranked 11th in the final MetroNews poll.
Buckhannon-Upshur ended the regular season with back-to-back Big 10 Conference losses, falling 6-5 to Lincoln and 7-4 to Philip Barbour. The Bucs outhit both opponents but couldn’t turn it into wins heading into regional play.
Check out the Upshur County sports calendar for May 18–24, featuring Buckhannon-Upshur baseball in the South Regional Tournament (May 19–20) and boys and girls track & field at the WV State Championships in Charleston (May 22–23). Other days have no events scheduled.
Buckhannon-Upshur junior Rylen Carlyle won the South Regional long jump at 16-03.25 and also qualified for states in the 100-meter dash and 300-meter hurdles at Laidley Field. The Lady Bucs’ 4×800 relay placed seventh to earn a state berth, with the team finishing 10th overall.
Kadyn Baisden and Buckhannon-Upshur’s 4×800 relay are headed to the state track meet after strong showings at the South Regional Championships in Charleston. The relay team placed sixth in 8:43.33, and Baisden qualified with an eighth-place high jump at 5-10.
A slow start doomed the Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs in the state semis as they fell behind 6-0 early and couldn’t complete the comeback in a 7-5 loss to Morgantown. Mallory Moss scored four goals in the rally, but the Mohigans ran out the clock to end B-U’s season at 8-5.
Rylen Carlyle and Weldon Zirkle are the latest Hank Ellis All-Stars. Carlyle won the Big 10 long jump title and placed sixth in the 100, while Zirkle threw a complete game with eight strikeouts in an 8-3 win over Lewis County.
Buckhannon-Upshur snapped a skid with a big 10-9 upset of Class AAA No. 7 Robert C. Byrd, cashing in on five errors and homers from Weldon Zirkle and Jaxson Spratt. The Bucs rallied for four in the sixth and held on with a one-inning save.
Buckhannon-Upshur’s softball Lady Bucs slipped two spots to No. 8 in the final regular-season MetroNews Class AAAA coaches poll, finishing with 49 points and a 23-8 record. Cabell Midland stayed No. 1 with all 12 first-place votes, followed by University at No. 2.
