Photo by CODY TOMER / St. Clairsville Post 159’s Matt Busby makes a throw to first, while Beverly-Lowell’s Nate Brothers (12) slides into second during Tuesday’s Region 8 Final contest in Cambridge.

CAMBRIDGE — No lead was safe Tuesday as momentum shifts filled the Region 8 Final at Don Coss Field.

With its back against the wall, Beverly-Lowell Post 389/750 rallied twice for an 8-6 win over St. Clairsville Post 159 to force a winner-take all battle at 6 tonight.

“I know we weren’t on the better end of this game but this was fun,” St. Clairsville manager Mike Muklewicz said. “This was one of the best baseball games we’ve been a part of all year.

“The momentum shifts were huge in this game. It was all us at the beginning and then they started to chip away.”

Post 159 struck first on a RBI double off the left-field fence by Billy Johnson to plate Mason Ramsay in the opening frame.

St. Clairsville padded its cushion in the second with three straight hits to start the inning.

Drake Dobson, Matt Busby and Ramsay finished the job with RBI knocks to give Post 159 a 4-0 advantage after two.

That is when the bats went silent for St. Clairsville and Beverly-Lowell began to rally.

Over the next three innings, Post 159 went scoreless and Post 389/750 put together a four-run fourth to tie the game. The spurt was sparked by a solo home run off the bat of Logan Isner, who collected his third homer in two days.

“We needed that,” Beverly-Lowell manager Todd Engle said. “Their starter is good and he hides the baseball well. We needed someone to step up and show us that we can hit him.”

Beverly-Lowell was looking to secure a lead in the fifth with runners on second and third with no outs. Muklewicz decided to go to his bullpen as Dom Wallace took the mound.

The righty entered a pressure-packed situation and struck out the side to escape the jam and give the momentum back to St. Clairsvsille.

The clutch pitching performance translated to offense as Wallace’s teammates stepped up to the plate. After the first three St. C hitters reached base in the sixth, Ramsay and Cade Blomquist knocked in runs to give their squad a 6-4 edge.

“Dom Wallace came in and struck out the side. That was huge,” Muklewicz said. “He brings a lot of eneregy to the team and everybody was up at that point.”

Despite being behind on the scoreboard once again, there was one more rally left in the bats of Beverly-Lowell.

Following a leadoff walk to Nate Brothers to open the sixth, Post 389/750 went on to plate four runs in the frame via four walks, one error and a back-breaking two-run single by Isner to regain the lead and the momentum.

“We kind of pride our program on never giving up,” Engle said. “Two of our kids in here said that ‘this is what we do.’

“They believe there is some kind of karma there that will help them late in the innings.”

St. Clairsville kept battling as the first two hitters drew walks but Konnor Roberts induced a 6-4-3 double play and Drew Huffman came on to get the final strikeout of the game.

“Give the team across the field credit,” Muklewicz said. “Beverly-Lowell has a nice team. They hit the ball from top to bottom and they have nice pitchers, too.

“We always have fun when we get together but they got us (Tuesday).

“I can tell just by looking at my team after the game that they are going to be ready to go (today). There will be no coming out flat, I guarantee that.”