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Beverly/Lowell grasps 7-6 win over St. Clairsville Post 159

Photo by Mike Morrison Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750’s Brent West throws a pitch during an American Legion baseball game against St. Clairsville Post 159 Thursday in Beverly.

BEVERLY — Tanner Neal’s clutch two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning proved to be the game-winner as Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 rallied for a 7-6 win over St. Clairsville Post 159 Thursday evening at Fort Frye High School.

Neal’s base-hit took his evening from bad to good in a hurry as the former Warren Warrior pitcher gave up the go-ahead runs to St. Clairsville in the top of the sixth and kept him from being saddled with the loss.

“Tanner (Neal) is such a fierce, fierce competitor that he was really bummed when he gave up those two runs,” said Beverly/Lowell head coach Todd Engle.

“He was really down so to come up with that big knock right there was big for us.”

Post 389/750 actually let a four-run lead of there own slip away before having to rally for the win.

Engle’s squad struck first in the opening frame when they reached St. Clairsville starting pitcher Drake Dobson for three unearned runs.

Drew Huffman reached base on a fielding error and one-out later came around to score when first baseman Logan Isner doubled off the fence in straight-away center field.

Konnor Roberts reached base on a base-on-balls and center-fielder Luke Nelson followed with an RBI single to score Isner with the second run of the inning.

Bev/Low got one more run when both Eric Isner and Nate Brothers were hit by pitches to increase their lead to 3-0.

Logan Isner’s second double in as many innings plated Clayton Cook with yet another Beverly/Lowell run in the last of the second to stretch their lead to 4-0.

Frontier graduate Brent West started on the mound for Post 389/750 but was chased in the third inning when the St.Clairsville bats began to show some signs of life.

Leadoff hitter Kyle Storer reached base after striking out on a wild pitch and moved to second on a Beverly/Lowell throwing error.

Dustin Carrothers knocked in Storer with a double and after Billy Johnson was hit by a West pitch, Kade Bloomquist singled sharply to center field to load the bases.

Second baseman Logan Tonkovich walked to force in a run and Engle elected to replace West on the mound with Eric Isner.

Isner managed to minimize the damage as he got Matt Busby to ground into a fielder’s choice to allow the third run to score before retiring Jacob Jarvis and Dom Wallace to keep Beverly/Lowell clinging to a 4-3 lead.

After the rough start on the hill, Dobson settled down nicely and blanked B/L over the next three innings and an RBI-single by Jarvis in the fifth inning knotted the score at 4-4.

St. Clairsville took their only lead of the game in the top off of the sixth off of Neal.

Carrothers and Johnson drew one-out walks and those freebies would come back to haunt the Beverly/Lowell southpaw as a Bloomquist single gave Post 159 the lead and a sacrifice fly by Tonkovich extended that lead to 6-4 heading to the last of the sixth.

Just as in the top of the inning, walks played a key role in the Post 389/750 rally as both Tate Engle and Drew Huffman drew walks off of Dobson to begin the pivotal sixth.

Tonkovich came in from his second base position to relieve Dobson and BevLow catcher Clayton Cook greeted him with a sharp single up the middle to load the bases with nobody out.

Logan Isner drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the fifth run of the game but Tonkovich recovered to get Roberts and Nelson to pop out to keep the bases loaded with two out.

Neal came up huge however as he stroked a single into left center field to plate both Huffman and Cook with the tying and go-ahead runs.

Kurt Taylor, who had come on to get the final out in the sixth for Beverly/Lowell began the seventh on the mound but walked pinch-hitter Cole Porter to begin the inning and Engle wasted little time in bringing Roberts in from third base to try and nail down the save.

After a sacrifice bunt by Hunter McCort moved the tying run into scoring position, Roberts retired the next two hitters to secure the seventh win of the season in eight tries for Beverly/Lowell.

“I learned a little bit about the fight in these kids tonight after we got down,” said Engle, whose team will host Cambridge Saturday in a doubleheader. “Everything was going the wrong way for us but we fought and came back and came up with three big runs there to get this win.”

Taylor was credited with the win and Roberts with the save for Beverly/Lowell while Tonkovich took the loss for St. Clairsville which slipped to 1-2 with the loss.

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