Bev/Low rallies to win District tourney game

Post 389/750 moves into winners bracket

CAMBRIDGE -- With their bats quiet in the early going of Sunday afternoon's District 11 American Legion District tournament opener at Don Coss Field in Cambridge against St. Clairsville Post 159, Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 elected to become aggressive on the base paths and that strategy paid huge dividends as they rallied to score a come-from-behind 8-7 win to advance into the winners bracket.

Post 389/750 found themselves trailing by a pair of runs heading to the fourth inning before hustling their way into the lead by scoring three times off of St. Clairsville starting pitcher Drew Sefsick.

"We have to play that way because we are not one of those teams that are just going to sit back and beat the ball all over the ball park," said Beverly/Lowell head coach Todd Engle. "We have to take advantage of our foot speed and we were able to today."

Bev/Low found themselves trailing 3-1 after three innings of play as St. Clairsville took advantage of some less than stellar defense to score solo runs in each of the first three innings off of Post 389/750 starting pitcher Kurt Taylor.

Catcher Thomas Miller got things going for the defending state champs in the fourth with a one-out single, the first base-hit of the game for Beverly/Lowell.

After shortstop Seth Dennis flied out to center, third baseman Wade Pauley singled to left field and first baseman Seth Miller reached base on a fielding error to load the bases.

Jacob Huffman tied the game when his bullet to first base caromed off of Treston Nemeth and into right center field allowing both Thomas Miller and Pauley to cross the plate.

Post 389/750 took the lead when Huffman broke for second base on a delayed steal attempt and when Post 159 catcher Chase Goff fired the ball to second, Seth Miller sprinted home from third and just beat the return throw to complete the double-steal and give Beverly/Lowell their first lead of the game.

Bev/Low increased their lead to 5-3 in the top of the fifth when lead-off hitter Maeson Long walked and hustled his way all the way to second when Goff had trouble locating the errant pitch.

Long would eventually score on another wild pitch to give Beverly two-run lead.

Post 389/750 added two more runs in the top of the sixth on a lead-off double by Pauley and a base-hit by Caleb Davis and an infield single by Long which saw the Fort Frye Cadet dive head-first into first base to beat out the hit and give his team a 7-3 lead.

"Maeson (Long) was kind of down because he let a couple of balls fall in center field early on that he felt he should have caught," said Engle. "Those were a couple of plays on the bases that were big for him and big for our team."

After the rough beginning on the bump, Taylor had settled down nicely to blank St. Clairsville in the fourth and fifth innings before getting himself into big trouble in the bottom of the sixth.

Base-hits by Collin Snedeker and Jaren Starks sandwiched a walk to Dakota Hess to load the bases with nobody out bringing the tying run to the plate for St. Clairsville.

Taylor got bailed out big time by his defense when Colby Shriver hit a hard shot to third baseman Cam Tennant who fired the ball home to catcher Thomas Miller who stepped on the plate and then fired the ball to Seth Miller at first to complete a huge 5-to-2-to-3 double play.

"That was a big play especially since we had just put Cam (Tennant) into the game," said Engle. "We are fortunate to have a 17-man roster and I consider all 17 of them good enough to be starters."

St. Clairsville did manage to shrink the deficit to two when shortstop Braylen Bloomquist delivered a two-run single but Taylor retired Goff to end the inning.

Post 389/750 added what would prove to be a big insurance run in the top of the seventh on a base-hit by Dennis coupled with the fourth fielding error of the game committed by Post 159.

Taylor got the first out in the last of the seventh but walked Nemeth and surrendered a base-hit to Sefsick and Engle elected to bring Seth Miller into the game to protect the lead.

Snedeker greeted Miller rather rudely when he stroked a single to trim the lead to 8-6 but Miller recovered to retire the final two batters of the game to notch the save and punch Post 389/750's ticket to the winner's bracket where they will face Zanesville this evening at 5 p.m.

Taylor scattered nine hits and allowed four earned runs to gain the win on a day where the future Marietta College Pioneer did not have his best stuff.

"Kurt was wanting to finish but I felt like I had to go and get him," said Engle, "Seth has been Mr. Reliable on the hill for us all year long but he has pitched most of the time as a starter. He's been effective and keeps the ball down and he got the job done again today."

Beverly/Lowell improved to 23-5 on the season while St, Clairsville slipped to 13-8 and will be forced to play their way out of the loser's bracket.