BLOCKING — Brilliant Post 573 catcher Bailey Penner attempts to block the ball as Coshocton’s Memphis Cutshall scores during Thursday’s Region 7 district tournament. -Joe Catullo

STEUBENVILLE — For the first time in 27 years, Brilliant Post 573 is in the winners bracket of the district tournament, at least according to head coach Mickey Nest.

He will have a good night sleep — that is for sure.

Thanks to a four-run first inning, decent enough pitching and solid defense, Brilliant bested Coshocton Post 65, 5-4, on Thursday at Vaccaro Field to open district play in Region 7. Post 573 now will challenge Jefferson County Teramana Post 33 at 7 p.m. today.

“The last two weeks we have shown tremendous improvement. The first four weeks was inconsistent due to the rain and high school teams still being in the tournament,” Brilliant head coach Mickey Nest said. “We went three weeks without a game. We started playing again, and we were completely out of sync. We played pretty decent in the Beast of the East and got a win, should’ve had two. We’ve been playing well ever since, and it payed off (Thursday).”

Post 65 starter Jake Wiersma had trouble finding his footing in the bottom of the first. Alan Burkett led off with a single. Then, with one out, Joey Booth and Devin Toothman reached on back-to-back HBPs to load the bases.

Catcher Bailey Penner promptly delivered an RBI single, before Tyler Donahue was plunked with the bases loaded. Two more runs crossed home following an error on Corey Olinksi’s flyout to right field.

“Their pitcher started with a sidearm delivery, and he just didn’t have his control in the first inning. We took advantage of it. That was really huge,” Nest said.

After that, Wiersma was dominant with 10 strikeouts in the complete-game effort. However, an all-important insurance run in the bottom of the fourth gave Brilliant momentum.

With the lead trimmed to 4-2, Burkett came through with a two-out RBI base knock for a 5-2 advantage.

“When it got to 4-2 was when we emphasized to our guys to be more patient at the plate because we were helping the pitcher out,” Nest said. “When we did that, we were able to scratch across another run, which turned out to be huge”

Coshocton cut it down again with back-to-back run-scoring doubles in the top of the sixth from Memphis Cutshall and Brody Hammersley. Post 573 starter Toothman stopped the bleeding by picking off a runner at second.

Toothman earned the win in six innings, allowing four runs on four hits, eight walks and striking out two. He struggled with command early but found a groove in the fifth. Burkett closed the door and earned the save in the seventh, allowing two base hits and punching out one.

“(Toothman) settled down after a couple of innings. He did walk a bunch, but they really weren’t able to get around on him until late in the game. By then he found his groove,” Nest said. “Alan did a nice job and shut them down, which is what he wanted. He begged for it.”

Coshocton scored one run in each the third and fourth frames. Cutshall walked in the third, reached second on a pop out to third, took third on a balk and scored on a sacrifice fly.

In the fourth, Trent Warden walked to open the inning, eventually made his way to third and scored after a teammate was gunned down attempting to swipe second.

LOOKING AHEAD

The loser of today’s contest will play Coshocton at 4 p.m. Saturday to see who goes home. That winner will play today’s winner at 7 p.m. If necessary, Game 5 will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Post 33 originally was scheduled to face New Philadelphia Thursday before it backed out of the tournament. Head coach Anthony Pierro was not given a reason why.

Brilliant 5, Coshocton 4

Coshocton 0-0-1 1-0-2 0 — 4 6 2

Brilliant 4-0-0 1-0-0 x — 5 4 1

COSHOCTON: Wiersma (LP, CG, 5R, 4H, 0BB, 10K) and Yoder. Warden D; Fauver S; Cutshall D, RBI; Hammersley D, RBI; Mount RBI; Wiersma S; Host S.

BRILLIANT: Toothman (WP, 6IP, 4R, 4H, 8BB, 2K), Burkett (SV, 1IP, 0R, 2H, 0BB, 1K) and Penner. Burkett 2S; Penner S, RBI; Donahue RBI; Olinski S.