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St. Clairsville Post 159 Falls In Debut to Coshocton

St. Clairsville’s run of 19 straight ends

LANCASTER, Ohio — St. Clairsville had been red-hot during the latter part of the regular season and through four Region 8 tournament contests. Nine days off and some rusty pitching cooled off Post 159.

Region 7 champion Coshocton banged out 17 hits in avenging a pair of early season losses with a 10-2 pounding of St. Clairsville on Wednesday at sun-roasted Beavers Field in the state American Legion baseball tournament quarterfinals.

With a loss, which ended a 19-game winning streak, Post 159 (33-7) dropped into the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination event. They were to meet the loser of last night’s late game between Circleville and Pickerington, at 1 p.m. today.

“This is not the way you want the first game of the state tournament to go, but these kids are capable of bouncing back,” St. Clairsville manager Mike Muklewicz said. “Now whether they do or not, we’ll see. They haven’t been put into this position for some time. They can either go two ways.”

Muklewicz, who finished his first season as Bridgeport head coach in the spring, said he was a little worried about the layoff, despite putting his troops through several practices and an intra-squad game.

“Anytime you’re off for that long you’re worried a little, but we hit the ball hard at times, but it was right at a Coshocton player,” he said. “Also, when you’re playing on a (artificial) surface like this, the ball bounces differently. They hit some balls that we may have made a play on if it had been grass, but it was just out of our reach.”

After a scoreless first inning, Post 159 took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Branden Ducker singled home Tyler Blomquist. However, a first-and-third situation with no outs developed into no more damage as Luke Slavik lined out to right and Ducker was caught stealing. A popup ended the inning.

The Cherokees (21-9) answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Winning pitcher Josh Bigrigg doubled to the corner in left with one out to tie the game. Andrew Mason followed with a sharp single just inside the first-base bag past a diving Tyler Ramsay to make it 2-1.

Bigrigg, a River View High School graduate, singled in another run in the third, but a potential fourth was thrown out at the plate as Trevor Kiner pulled a hamstring between third and home.

Coshocton plated three runs in the fifth to give itself some breathing room. Talon Babcock and Bigrigg had back-to-back run-scoring singles. Ray Durham chased the third home with a sacrifice fly.

All the while, the right-handed Bigrigg was keeping the St. Clairsville hitters at bay. He scattered five hits in five-plus innings before being taken out with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth. Braeden Smith relieved and got a flyout to left-center to end the threat.

Post 65 added a single run in the bottom of the sixth, two in the seventh and another in the eighth.

“Our pitching wasn’t what we had hoped for,” Muklewicz said. “It was our strong point early in the season, but it wasn’t (this time).”

Starter Parker Dyson and relievers Lucas Lloyd and Mason Ramsay combined for four strikeouts, but walked seven.

St. Clairsville finished with nine hits, but also stranded nine runners. Patrick Buchanan had three singles. Slavik singled twice, while Daulton Freeman and Tyler Ramsay each doubled. Zac Clark singled in a run in the ninth.

Bigrigg drove in three runs for two singles and a double. Jorn Hocter, the No. 9 hitter, singled twice, doubled and knocked in a run. Conner Roahrig, Gavin Gray, Babcock and Mason all had two hits each, with Gray and Babcock each chasing home two runs.

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