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Wheeling Post 1 Tops Romney In 10-8 Friday Thriller

Wheeling rebounds from 7-3 hole for win

Photo by Kyle Lutz - Wheeling’s Tyler Ashbrook throws a pitch during the seventh inning during Post 1’s battle against Romney.

BETHANY — During the bottom half of the fourth inning, Wheeling saw itself in a 7-3 hole. Post 1 was in the field and Romney had two men on. Tyler Ashbrook just entered the game to pitch for Post 1, which needed a spark real quick. It certainly got it. Romney’s Wyatt Yates hit a line drive to third base which looked like a for sure base hit. Jacob Murray had other plans as he jumped and snagged the ball out of the air and threw it to second base for the double play to get Post 1 out of the jam.

The momentum was in favor of Post 1 as it scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game and tacked on three more in the sixth thanks to a Brian Campbell two-run homer as Post 1 got a 10-8 victory. It will play Bridgeport today at 1 p.m. at Bethany.

“Once again, that’s Tyler Ashbrook. He comes in and we were really down,” Wheeling (29-11) manager Mark Delbrugge said about the spark. “He came in and got that huge double play and the momentum seemed to change. We started to get some runners on and their pitcher started to tire a little bit. We got some key hits and the momentum came back to us.

“It was a roller coaster ride. Romney is a very good team. That’s one of the better hitting teams we’ve seen all year.”

After Wheeling had a successful three-run first inning, Romney showed it was ready to play. With the bases loaded, Vinnie Cuthbertson gave them the lead with one swing of the bat as he saw his ball go over the outfield for a grand slam to give his team a 4-3 lead.

Cuthbertson increased the lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning on an RBI-single. Braiden Popluhar advanced him to second with a hit. That’s when Ashbrook came into the game for Wheeling and Murray made his double-play to end the inning.

Jarrett Delbrugge started the fifth inning off with a double. Chad Harper then put down a perfect bunt and beat out the throw. Campbell got his first hit of the game to put the score at 7-4. An error throw scored the fifth run for Wheeling.

After his play in the field, Murray stepped up to the plate with two outs. He kept the inning going with an RBI-triple to put the score at 7-6. A wild pitch during Wheeling’s next at-bat tied the game at 7-7.

“We came out and jumped on them like we have early and got a nice lead for our pitchers,” Mark Delbrugge said. “We made a fundamental base-running mistake early that cost us a lot of momentum. (Today’s) going to be a huge game. If we can get Bridgeport, we’re in a pretty good position, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.”

Colton Coss gave Post 1 the lead for good after bringing home Ashbrook on a RBI-single. Campbell put up the final runs for Post 1 with his long ball to left field. It is his second home run during the state tournament.

“He has had some great at bats,” Mark Delbrugge said. “We were only up by one run and I knew it was going to be a struggle to hang on to that one-run lead. That gave us two insurance runs that we needed. He had some absolutely tremendous bats these last two games.”

Ashbrook was brilliant on the mound as he kept Romney off balance as soon as he came in. He gave up two hits and got his lone strikeout to end the game.

Jarrett Delbrugge finished with a single and a double while Coss had two hits and one RBI. Along with his single, Harper belted a double while Murray tallied a triple and single. Campbell rounded out the multi-hitters with his home run and single.

For Romney, Bryce Strawderman accumulated three singles and Zac Whitacre tallied two. Cuthbertson had his grand slam and a single while Popluhar put down two singles.

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