Moundsville Post 3 Keeps Steubenville Post 33 Winless

WHEELING - Moundsville American Legion Post 3 played about as perfect a baseball game as you could play Thursday in its opening game of the 38th annual Edgar Martin Beast of the East 19U Baseball Tournament.

Post 3 scored three times in the first before exploding for an 8-spot in the second to roll past Steubenville Post 33 by an 11-0 count on the artificial surface at Patriot Field on the campus of Wheeling Park High School. The game was stopped after three-and-a-half innings due to the mercy rule.

"They are a very young team like we have been," Moundsville manager Tim Koontz said of Steubenville. "We've been playing pretty well."

Moundsville (6-10) recorded eight hits - all singles - stole five bases and turned a pair of key double plays in a spotless outing. A pair of Post 3 pitchers combined on a three-hitter.

"We hit the ball and ran the bases well," Koontz added. "Our pitchers did a really good job."

No. 9 hitter Nate Hughes had two of the one-base raps and drove in a run, while winning pitcher Jacob Cisar singled home a pair of runs and struck out four before leaving the contest in the third due to illness.

Rocco Beveridge took over on the mound with two runners on and no out in the third. He worked his way out of the jam without any damage, recording a popup, fielder's choice and strikeout.

Steubenville (0-7) opened the game with a single from Kaiden Anderson. However, two pitches later, John Wineman lined to short and shortstop Hayden Huighes gunned a throw to first baseman Owen Porter to double off Anderson. As luck would have it, Chase Kuhn singled before Cisar fanned Kyler Snyder.

Hayden Hughes led off the bottom of the inning with an infield single and proceeded to steal second and third before racing home on a wild pitch, one of three runs Moundsville would score in the game via wild pitches. Porter's sacrifice fly made it 3-0.

Cisar struck out the side in the second before his teammates rewarded him by sending a dozen batters to the plate in the bottom of the frame, with eight scoring. His two-run single with no outs sparked the outburst. 

Landon Stack, Donavan Jones, Hayden Gaiser and Nate Hughes all added run-scoring base hits in the inning.

Beveridge yielded a leadoff single to Snyder to start the fourth but he was quickly erased on a 6-4-3 twin killing. A pop out ended things.

"We are dressing for the job we want, not the one we have. Right now we are a young team, but we are not going to use that as an excuse," Steubenville manager Lee Bainbridge said. "We want to play against the older kids to make us better."

Post 3 fell to Wheeling Post 1 by a 7-5 count in their second outing.

Moundsville returns to action Friday at 8 a.m. against Steubenville Post 33 on Patriot Field at Wheeling Park High School and then plays Weirton at 3:30 on Monarch Field in Glendale.