WELLSBURG - Baseball is often referred to as a game of inches.

That surely was the case during Sunday evening's thriller between Wheeling Post No. 1 and Wintersville Post 557 at the Wellsburg Post 34 American Legion Tournament on the Brooke High School diamond.

Trailing 7-3 entering the top of the seventh inning, the scrappy Wintersville squad pushed across three runs and loaded the bases with still just one out when Adam Young smashed a line drive toward the left side of the infield.

A couple of inches left or to the right of Post 1 shortstop Andrew ''Budda'' Henry and Young might have been rewarded with a two-run single with the inning still very much alive for Wintersville (9-6). Instead the ball was speared by Henry and he quickly flipped it to Corey Walters to catch Tim Newburn off third base. The result was a game-ending double play that sealed a 7-6 victory for Wheeling Legion.

''Our kid did his job,'' said Post 557's first-year coach Don Young. ''He hit the ball hard. Unfortunately for us, it was right at their shortstop.''

For Wheeling Post 1, which escaped with its ninth victory against eight losses, the narrow victory was something Coach Tom Pasco's team has been experiencing the past several weeks.

''We can't win an easy one these days,'' he offered. ''When you play against tough competition, that's the way it's going to be. It says something about the caliber of legion baseball in the Valley this season. On the plus side for us, we have our record back over the .500 mark, and we came out of this tournament with a 3-1 record.''

While Post 1 was able to celebrate a hard-earned victory, the defeat was a tough one to swallow for a young but improving Wintersville team.

''We hit some balls hard but we also made a lot of mistakes,'' Coach Young said.

''I like the aggressive way we are playing. Sometimes that works in your favor, but it also can work against you. It's still a learning process for our players. I have to be pleased with our kids' effort. We don't give up. They've battled everyone we've played the whole seven innings.''

Wheeling, which led most of the game until Wintersville rallied for a 3-3 tie, looked to be on Easy Street after scoring four runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning to take command.

Henry, whose infield hit on a slow roller to third base put Post 1 on top in the opening frame, singled to center to start what would prove to be the game-winning rally. With one out, he swiped second base while Jon-Michael Brunner was drawing a walk. Walters lined a shot up the middle for an RBI single and Alex Stephens singled above shortstop to load the bases for Brian Coen.

The Wheeling catcher dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Brunner as Wintersville pitcher J.D. Sokolowski could only throw to first for an out on Coen. A two-out throwing error when Derek Miller hit a bouncer to shortstop let in the third and fourth runs of the inning.

Matt Carnahan, who pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth inning to keep the game tied at 3-3, ran into trouble while trying to close out the victory.

Jordan McIntyre walked and Alan Hastwell was hit by a pitch to start the last-ditch Post 559 uprising. McIntyre stole third and kept on coming home when the ball was thrown past third base, cutting the deficit to 7-4. Brandon Borkoski singled up the middle to score Hastwell. Newburn reached on an infield single, putting runners at first and third. Brandon Gillespie also rapped a single past the mound into center field and suddenly it was a 7-6 game. A wild pitch put two runners in scoring position ahead of Young's hard-luck liner that was speared by Henry.

Although Wheeling pushed across two runs in the bottom of the first, the game quickly turned into a pitching duel between the starters Jordan Medley and Sokolwski. Medley, a 2009 Linsly School senior, hurled shutout ball through four innings, striking out seven and allowing only one walk to that point.

Sokolowski also pitched well, although he fell behind 3-0 in the third inning when he issued a two-out walk to Carnahan, who stole second and rode home when Scott Castilow blasted a double to the fence in left center.

Medley couldn't get out of the fifth inning after yielding a leadoff single to Newburn, the second of his three hits, followed by Gillespie's RBI double. Wintersville ended up with two runs in the frame, the second coming across the plate when McIntyre was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Sambuco was able to end the rally without further damage by striking out Jordan Banks. In the sixth, however, he was replaced by Carnahan after a single, another hit batsman and consecutive walks to Gillespie and Young forced across the tying run and left the bases loaded with none out.

Carnahan got the first out on a pop fly. He then received a huge break when Gillespie strayed to far off third base and was picked off on a perfect throw from Coen to Walters. Dan Dunlevy bounced out to second base for the third out.

Wheeling managed just six hits, two by Henry, but took advantage of five walks and three Wintersville errors. Wintersville's seven-hit attack included two singles and an RBI from Borkoski.

Cadiz 7-3, Richmond 6-2

At Cadiz, Both teams combined to score 13 runs on just four hits - with Cadiz's hits bunt singles by Jack Graham and Chad Coffman - in a one-run victory.

Graham was the winning pitcher and Andrew Barbina came on to close the door.

J.P. Pellegreen and Barbina kept Richmond (8-16-1) quiet in the second game, combining on a three hitter for Cadiz (4-7).