MARTINSBURG — Under a baking July sun, the 2019 Battle at the Burg heated up on Monday evening as the eight-team tournament moved into the elimination rounds.

Oatesdale Park in Martinsburg hosted four quarterfinal games, with two sets of two games going on simultaneously. In the first pair of games, home team Martinsburg White hosted Brunswick (Md.) on the complex’s Major field, while Jefferson faced Hedgesville on the Minor field.

On the upper field, Martinsburg White took a 2-0 lead in the first inning after Brunswick started the game by walking the first four batters, scoring on a bases-loaded walk and a wild pitch.

However, things went sideways from thereon in for Martinsburg. Brunswick quickly rallied for two runs in the second inning, and broke things open in the third, scoring a pair of runs on wild pitches before Matt Johnson checked in with a big two-run single to put Brunswick up 6-2.

Martinsburg wasn’t able to muster any significant offense from that point onward, scoring only a pair runs on groundouts in the fourth and fifth before running into the time limit. Brunswick added two more runs in the fifth to make it 8-4, before pitcher Jared Ricketts struck out the side in the fifth to close out the win and send Martinsburg White packing from the tournament.

For Martinsburg White, Braylon Cole pitched the full five innings, battling through numerous errors to finish a complete game.

At the same time on the lower field, Jefferson Burgundy met Hedgesville in one of the most competitive games the Battle at the Burg has seen so far this year. Down 2-1 in the third, Jefferson ripped off six runs to take the lead, before having to fend off a furious Hedgesville rally to escape with a semifinal berth.

Jefferson took the lead in the bottom of the first, with leadoff man Damian Vogel finding his way aboard due to an error and coming around for the game’s first run. Hedgesville soon answered in the second, plating Aiden Fuller and Jake Anderson due to Jefferson wildness on the mound.

Towards the end of the game, business picked up for both teams. Six of the eight batters who came to the plate in Jefferson’s half of the third scored, with big blows coming on RBI doubles by first baseman Calvin Lee and second baseman Austin Blehr.

With a 7-2 lead in hand, it looked like Jefferson might have been home free. But in the top of the fourth, Hedgesville roared back, plating four and leaving the tying run on base. Reliever Aaron Kish, Jefferson’s fourth pitcher of the day, finally managed to escape the inning and preserve the win.

The misfortune for Martinsburg teams continued in the evening session. In the second round of games of the day, Martinsburg Black saw its bats go silent against South Berkeley and was also eliminated from the tournament.

South Berkeley starting pitcher Mason Sions pitched into the fifth inning and struck out 11 Martinsburg batters, driving his team to a 7-2 victory to set up a matchup with Brunswick in the semifinals tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, Jefferson Gold stole, quite literally, a win over Martinsburg Orange in dramatic fashion to continue the clean sweep of Martinsburg teams in the quarterfinals.

In a pitcher’s duel, Jefferson’s trio of Cole Cecero, Brady Mathias and Tio Garza combined for 14 strikeouts in six innings to edge out a good performance by Martinsburg’s Max Danner in a 4-3 Jefferson win.

Tied heading into the sixth inning, Garza got a base hit and was followed by a single from Andy Roberts. After a wild pitch, Garza noticed the pitcher had his back turned and made a mad dash for the plate, stealing home to secure the win.

The game-winning steal sets up an all-Jefferson semifinal that will start at 5 p.m today at Oatesdale Park.