ALLEGHANY, Va. – The Alleghany Mountaineers are a few scant weeks from officially becoming the Alleghany Cougars. But that’s not stopping the baseball team from making one final run to glory.
It was a grand finale Tuesday night at Mountaineer Field.
The last time fans sat on the hill overlooking the diamond, the last time the lights buzzed on, and just as the baseball Gods wrote it up, the last at bat ever as Mountaineers, was a grand slam.
Baseball is the last Mountaineer team still competing in the state tournament, and in just a few days, could be hoisting the final state title for Alleghany high school.
“Yeah, I’m just actually excited, grateful, I wasn’t thinking it was going to happen like that, it was great,” junior pitcher Hunter DePriest said.
“If you would’ve asked us at the beginning of the season, everyone on the team said, ‘yeah, we’re winning states’. because we were that confident,” senior outfielder Garrett Via said. “So special going into the season and see that we’re winning. It’s definitely pretty much playing off our confidence pretty much.”
Head coach Seth Bradley played baseball at Alleghany and has pride in the program he came from, and has continued to build.
”We just have to come out and do the routine things that we ask them to do every single day,” he said. “These guys prepare that way, which has really made it to where there’s not really a moment that’s too big for them. They step out on the field and they’re confident in their abilities. It’s paid off to this point. "
When it comes to action on the diamond, the Mountaineers chemistry is a staple.
“Well, we’ve been playing on the same team since we were kids, so we just went up in life, if you want to say it like that,” Via added.
“We know that we need to pull this out,” junior infielder Elijah Weese said. “I mean, we got support of like just everybody here tonight, a bunch of people, and we know we can do it.”
As the season of lasts comes to a close in a few days, there is still a first on the horizon: a state championship that would encapsulate more than a half century of history in the Highlands.