Breaking News
Local Sports

Beverly/Lowell eliminates Marietta, punches ticket to state

By Jordan Holland 6 min read

MARIETTA -- With a pair of wins in the Region 4 Tournament Friday at Pioneer Park, Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 punched its ticket to the state tournament in Lancaster.

The job, however, is not done.

Beverly/Lowell will take on Cambridge/Belle Valley on Saturday needing a pair of wins to secure the Region 4 championship. That's the team's main focus.

"We like to say that our program never plays for second place," said Post 389/750 head coach Todd Engle. "We want to win (Saturday). We've had a pretty good run. I've done this for, what, 23 years now, and we've won 17 of them. It's been a long time since we've had to come clear back through the loser's bracket to do it."

Beverly/Lowell dropped a 4-3 decision to St. Clairsville Post 159 on Wednesday to drop into the loser's bracket. After beating Steubenville Thursday, Post 389/750 needed to beat Marietta Post 64 first and them St. Clairsville in the nightcap to keep its season alive.

Two admirable pitching performances later, Beverly/Lowell is right where it wants to be.

Beverly/Lowell 5, Marietta 2

In a rematch of the first game of the tournament, Beverly/Lowell eliminated Marietta 5-2 in the first game of the day.

The teams traded zeroes in innings one and two before Post 389/750 struck for four runs in the bottom of the third. Facing a bases-loaded, one-out situation, Gavin Fling surrendered a sacrifice fly to Grady Hesson to break the scoreless tie. Fling nearly escaped without further damage when he got Dominic Fry to ground to short, but the ball was booted to re-load the bases. JR Curry's bloop single plated two and Jack McCurdy's RBI knock extended the lead to 4-0.

After Hesson cruised through the first four innings on the mound, Marietta finally got to him in the top of the fifth. With runners on second and third and two down, Tate Jonas came up with a clutch single back up the middle to plate two and cut the deficit in half.

Hesson, though, after getting some insurance on Kainan Bradford's RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, pitched 1-2-3 sixth and seventh innings -- the right-hander even caught the final out on a popout -- to finish it off.

Hesson went the distance on 104 pitches, walking two and striking out six in the winning effort.

Fling took the loss for Marietta, which finished the season 16-22. He walked four and struck out three in 5 2-3 innings to take the loss, though four of the five runs he allowed were unearned. Marietta committed three errors while Post 389/750 did not have a defensive miscue.

Tornes for Post 64 and Easton Walker for Beverly/Lowell led their respective teams with two hits apiece.

Beverly/Lowell 3, St. Clairsville 1

Walker got the nod on the bump in game two and brought his A-game, pitching all seven innings with two walks, eight punchouts and just five hits allowed.

"We thought lefty on lefty was a good matchup against (St. Clairsville)," Engle said. "He did a nice job of moving the baseball in and out as well as up and down. Easton's just a competitor. He's going to Muskingum for a reason. He's been our leading hitter all year long. He's just had a phenomenal year."

Behind Walker, Beverly/Lowell played errorless ball.

"I knew I could just throw strikes and my defense behind me would make plays," Walker said. "It makes it pretty easy as a pitcher knowing you have the best defense. All you have to do is throw it over the plate and good things will happen."

Post 159 starter Ford Hughes went 6 1-3 innings with four walks -- two intentional ones to Bradford -- and two strikeouts. The only trouble the right-hander ran into came in the second inning when Beverly/Lowell put its bunting abilities on full display.

A leadoff walk by Hesson, who eventually scored the game's first run on a wild pitch, got things started. Then, the next four batters -- Fry, McCurdy, Wade Duskey and Kyler Starr -- all laid down bunts. The first three went for hits, with Duskey's bringing in Fry to make it 2-0. Finally, Starr's sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third, setting up Cam Sidwell's sac fly to make it 3-0.

That was all the offense Beverly/Lowell would need.

"That's what happens we start bunting like that -- we speed teams up," Engle said. "When you get sped up as a group, now all of a sudden it only takes one guy not doing their job, whether it's covering a bag or whatever. That's a big part of what we do and we work on it religiously at practice."

St. Clairsville played some small ball of its own to plate its only run. In the bottom of the third, Jaxon Starks led off with a bunt single. Starks stole second, advanced to third on a balk and scored on Matheson King's sacrifice fly - which Fry made a diving catch on in foul territory.

Other than that, Post 159 couldn't put much together against Walker.

Roby Hanna led off the sixth inning with a double, but never moved from second as Walker struck out the next two batters and got Caiden Bailey to fly out to end the inning.

"My pitching's been outstanding all year long, and we need a couple more tomorrow if we're gonna do this," said Engle, who will give the ball to Jenner Burge in game one Saturday.

The two teams combined for 12 hits, but no single player had more than one hit. Walker and Hanna both had a double for the only extra-base hits of the affair.

"We've played some classics with these guys over the last four or five years," Engle said. "Utmost respect for their program."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com

At Pioneer Park

Region 4 Tournament

Elimination Games

Beverly/Lowell (Post 389/750) 3, St. Clairsville (Post 159) 1

B 030 000 0 -- 3 7 0

S 001 000 0 -- 1 5 1

WP: Easton Walker 7 IP, 2 BB, 8 SO

LP: Ford Hughes 6.1 IP, 4 BB, 2 SO

Eli Smith .2 IP, 0 BB, 1 SO

Beverly/Lowell (26-9) hitting: Cam Sidwell 1-3, RBI; Walker 1-4, 2B; Grady Hesson 1-2, R; Dominic Fry 1-2, R; Jack McCurdy 1-3, R; Wade Duskey 1-2, RBI; Kyler Starr 1-2

St. Clairsville hitting: Jaxon Starks 1-3, R; Matheson King 1-1; Roby Hanna 1-3, 2B; Dylan Blon 1-3; Caiden Bailey 1-3

Beverly/Lowell (Post 389/750) 5, Marietta (Post 64) 2

M 000 020 0 -- 2 6 3

B 004 001 x -- 5 5 0

WP: Grady Hesson 7 IP, 2 BB, 6 SO

LP: Gavin Fling 5.2 IP, 4 BB, 3 SO

Jacob Sealey .1 IP, 0 BB, 1 SO

Marietta (16-22) hitting: Will Tornes 2-4, R; Sealey 1-4; Braun Doak R; Tate Jonas 1-2, 2 RBIs; Logan Fling 1-3; Casey Burkhammer 1-3

Beverly/Lowell hitting: Cam Sidwell R; Easton Walker 2-4, R; Kainan Bradford 1-2, R, RBI; Hesson RBI; Dominic Fry R; JR Curry 1-3, 2 RBIs; Jack McCurdy 1-2, RBI; Kyler Starr R

Next game: Beverly/Lowell vs. Cambridge/Belle Valley, noon Saturday at Pioneer Park

Starting at /week.