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 its first game in the Region 8 district tournament on Saturday, Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 had a big hole in it to complete its goal of advancing to the state tournament next week in Lancaster.
The Boys of the Summer were on top when they won their second game on Saturday and then won again on Sunday and Monday before defeating St. Clairsville Post 159 9-2 Tuesday night at Gant Stadium in Zanesville to claim another district championship.
Starting pitcher Noah West pitched seven strong innings and the Beverly/Lowell offense broke things open late as they captured their 15th district title in the last 20 seasons.
St. Clairsville defeated BevLow in the opener before falling to them 8-0 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 Post 159 starting pitcher Treston Nemeth in the third.
Frontier senior Lucas Cox got things going for Beverly/Lowell with a single to lead off the third and leadoff hitter Dawson Layton sacrificed him to second.
Owen Brown singled in Cox with the tying run and later in the inning, Nemeth hit catcher Ian Ellis with the bases loaded to force in the second run.
Post 389/750 added another run in the bottom of the fourth and once again Cox was in on the action.
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 singled and came around to score when the pitch went wild to third and went down the left field line to give B/L a 4-1 lead.
St. Clairsville got one of those runs in the top of the fifth when Ayden Ludolph and Chance Maffe singled before Nemeth got Ludolph to ground out.
Post 159 put a runner on base in every inning but one, but West was able to keep them from putting together a big inning by throwing for contact and taking advantage of a strong defensive unit behind him.
“We have a really great defense and I was just trying to get them to put the ball in play” said West, who didn’t walk a batter. “I was able to throw strikes and I had good command of my curveball which was big.”
Beverly/Lowell would be able to put together a big inning of their own as they batted in the bottom of the sixth to score five times and nearly 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 to center for his second hit of the game to load the bases and Brown followed with a two-run double into the left-center field gap to score Henry and Cox.
One out later, third baseman Wade Pauley was walked intentionally to reload the bases before Jacob Huffman singled in two more runs to extend the lead to 8-2.
Layton scored the last run to give West some breathing room heading into the final inning.
After allowing a leadoff single to Ludolph in the top of the seventh, West got a big assist from his former high school teammate when Cox made an outstanding diving catch in left field and leaped and went force a bunt to first base to double off Ludolph.
“At first I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I just kept trying and trying and finally I was able to dive in and make the play.” Cox said. “I was a little surprised when I got up that we had a chance to double it, but it worked out well.”
West got Maffe to fly out Huffman for the final out as Beverly/Lowell punched its ticket to play in the state tournament starting Monday in Lancaster.
Both West and Cox played for the Marietta Post 64 team last year before deciding to play at Beverly/Lowell this season, a move that resulted in them becoming key contributors on a district championship team .
“It’s been a really great experience and it’s great to be able to go to state,” Cox said. “They’re a great group of guys to play ball with and we’re not done yet.”
Beverly/Lowell head coach Todd Engle was proud of his team’s ability to hang on after the rough start.
“We thought we had the pitching to come back, but we didn’t know if we had the pitching to pull through, and sure enough, we did.” Engle said. “These kids tend to be Beverly/Lowell kids … they’re resilient, tough-minded kids and I’m so proud of all of them.”
Engle also commented on the large number of Beverly/Lowell faithful who made the trip to Zanesville to cheer them on.
“This fan base that we have is amazing and when they show up like that, it just takes over a football stadium.” Engle said. “We are very proud to be a part of such a great community and commend them for coming forward and supporting these kids.”
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