CELEBRATING — Big Red’s Myles Cooper celebrates with teammate Landon Crosier and first base coach Joe Pierro with Nolan Blackburn rushing to join them after Cooper hit a a walk-off two-run base hit with two outs in the seventh to beat St. Clairsville Tuesday at the Crimson Complex. - Andrew Grimm

After seeing a big, early lead get away in one bad inning, and down to their last gasp, Myles Cooper delivered a two-out, two-run walk off hit to lift Big Red to a thrilling 6-5 victory over state-ranked St. Clairsville.

“We had a real bad inning, but we didn’t die, that’s the key,” Big Red head coach Fred Heatherington said. “A lot of times you see a team give up five runs in an inning and you think they die, but we didn’t die, we’re getting better. We played the whole game, that’s the key. We gave ourselves a chance to win and made it happen.”

Big Red had led 4-0 through two innings, but was in the hole at the end because the Red Devils put up five in the fourth.

Just when it seemed like the bats had gone quiet for good, Maddox Gulan hit a one-out single in the seventh to start the rally. Matt Fabbro was hit by a pitch, then, after a line out put two away, AJ Borsch drew a two-out, full count walk to load the bases for Cooper.

Big Red’s Myles Cooper connects with a pitch against St. Clairsville. - Andrew Grimm

He then laced a 1-2 offering the Red Devils Ryan Ivey into the outfield.

“We were behind in a lot of counts, but we kept battling,” Heatherington said. “Nolan (Blackburn) had a big hit early in the game, too, after being down in the count. We didn’t give up when we were down.

“We’re getting better for the tournament, we’ve got to be ready for next week.”

Outside of the one tough inning, Big Red (10-12) starter Noah Kokiko was able to hold the visitors’ strong line up at bay. He struck out two and walked three, putting up zeroes in the Red Devils last three turns at bat.

“Noah pitched a great game,” Heatherington said. “Defensively we played good except for the one bad inning, but Noah did a good job.”

Big Red starting pitcher Noah Kokiko fires to a St. Clairsville batter. - Andrew Grimm

St. Clairsville (17-5), the No. 11 ranked team in Division V by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association and OVAC 4A champs, left two men on in the top of the seventh, and it proved to be costly.

“We came out a little flat, weren’t able to make things happen, then when we finally did make some things happen, we weren’t able to tack on after that when we had an opportunity to tack on and it ended up costing us the game,” St. Clairsville head coach Tom Silva said. “It was a good game, coach Heatherington has always done a good job and we’ve always had very competitive games every time we play. This was no different. On our side of it, I just felt like we left some runs out there.”

The Red Devils’ big inning was sparked by a one-out RBI single from Jaxon Sparks, then, Caiden Bailey came up with the bases loaded and sent a ball into the outfield that cleared them, then he scored from third on a wild pitch to make it 5-4 visitors.

Big Red’s early runs came in back-to-back-to-back at bats in the bottom of the first, on a Nolan Blackburn RBI single, a Borsch RBI double and an RBI fielder’s choice from Cooper for a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Fabbro put a ball in play that resulted in a run-scoring error for a 4-0 lead.

Big Red’s Matt Fabbro races home from third base. - Andrew Grimm

UP NEXT

St. Clairsville: Is at Buckeye Local today.

Big Red: Heads on the road to Edison today before hosting Catholic Central on senior night Thursday.

Big Red 6, St. Clairsville 5

SC 0-0-0 5-0-0 0 – 5 7 1

BR 3-1-0 0-0-0 2 – 6 4 1

ST. CLAIRSVILLE (17-5): Florence (1 1/3IP, 4R, 3ER, 2H, 1K, 5BB), Ivey (LP, 5 1/3IP, 2R, 2ER, 2H, 0K, 4BB, 1HBP) and Balgo. Bailey S, 3RBI; Hanna S; Saunders 2S; King S; Starks 2S, RBI.

BIG RED (10-12): Kokiko (WP, CG, 5R, 4ER, 7H, 2K, 3BB, 1HBP) and Simmons. Borsch D, RBI; Cooper S, 3RBI; Gulan S; Blackburn S, RBI.