The Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 legion baseball team defeated St. Clairsville to win a district championship Tuesday at Gant Stadium in Zanesville. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

ZANESVILLE — After dropping their opener in the Region 8 District tournament on Saturday, Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 had a huge hole to dig themselves out of to complete their goal of advancing to the state tournament next week in Lancaster.

The Boys of the Summer were up to the task as they won their second game Saturday and then won again on Sunday and Monday before downing St. Clairsville Post 159 9-2 Tuesday night at Gant Stadium in Zanesville to claim yet another district championship.

Starting pitcher Noah West tossed seven strong innings and the Beverly/Lowell offense broke things open late as they captured their 15th district title in the past 20 seasons.

St. Clairsville downed BevLow in the opener before falling to them 8-0 on Monday night setting up Tuesday’s championship bout between the two heavyweights.

Both teams scored a solo run in the second inning before Beverly/Lowell scored a pair of runs off of Post 159 starting pitcher Treston Nemeth in the third.

Frontier graduate Lucas Cox got things going for Beverly/Lowell with a single to lead off the third and lead-off batter Dawson Layton sacrificed him to second.

Owen Brown singled in Cox with the tie-breaking run and later in the inning Nemeth plunked catcher Ian Ellis with the bases loaded to force in the second run.

Post 389/750 added another run in the last of the fourth and once again Cox was in on the act.

After Owen McCoy singled, Cox drew a walk and moved to second on a fielder’s choice in which McCoy was tagged out at third.

Cox stole third when Brown struck out and came into score when the throw was wild at third and went down the left field line to give B/L a 4-1 lead.

St. Clairsville got one of those runs back in the top of the fifth when Ayden Ludolph and Chance Maffe singled before Nemeth plated Ludolph on an infield ground out.

Post 159 put a base runner on base in each inning but one but West was able to keep them from putting together a big inning by pitching to contact and taking advantage of a strong defensive unit behind him.

“We have such a great defense and I was just trying to make them put the ball in play,” said West, who didn’t walk a single batter. “I was able to throw strikes and had pretty good command of my curve ball which was big.”

Beverly/Lowell would be able to put together a big inning of their own as they batted around in the bottom of the sixth to score five times and pretty much put things out of reach.

Pinch hitter Chase Henry got things going with a single and Cox walked to reach base for the third straight time.

Layton lined a bullet back up the middle for his second hit of the game to load the bases and Brown followed with a two-run double into the gap in left center field to score Henry and Cox.

One out later third baseman Wade Pauley was walked intentionally to re-load the bases before Jacob Huffman singled in two more runs to extend the lead to 8-2.

Layton scored the final run to give West a little breathing room heading to the final inning.

After allowing a lead-off single to Ludolph in the top of the seventh, West got a huge assist from his former high school teammate when Cox made an outstanding diving catch in left field and hopped to his feet and forced a strike to first base to double off Ludolph.

“At first I didn’t think I was going to get to it but I kept trying and trying and finally was able to dive and make the play,” said Cox. “I was a little surprised when I got to my feet that we had the chance to double him off but it worked out well.”

West got Maffe to fly out to Huffman for the final out as Beverly/Lowell punched their ticket to state tournament play beginning Monday in Lancaster.

Both West and Cox played on the Marietta Post 64 team last year before deciding to play for Beverly/Lowell this season, a move that resulted on becoming key contributors to a district championship team.

“It’s really been a great experience and it’s great to get to move onto state,” said Cox. “These are a great group of guys to get to play ball with and we aren’t done yet.”

Beverly/Lowell head coach Todd Engle was proud of his team’s ability to keep grinding after the tough start.

“We thought we had the pitching to get back but we didn’t know if we had the pitching to get over the top and sure enough we did,” said Engle. “These kids are typically Beverly/Lowell kids… they are resilient, tough-minded kids and I’m super proud of all of them.”

Engle also commented on the vast amount of Beverly/Lowell faithful who made the trip to Zanesville to cheer them on.

“This fan base that we have is incredible and when they show up like this it just takes over a ballpark,” said Engle. “We are so proud to be part of such a great community and kudos goes to them for showing up and supporting these kids.”