ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The major question mark surrounding St. Clairsville baseball this spring is how effective its pitching staff will be after graduation stripped the Red Devils of several talented arms.

If one game is any indication, Hall of Fame coach Tom Sliva may be guiding another powerful outfit.

Hunter Hoffman and Mason Myers both turned in sharp mound efforts in helping St. Clairsville debut with a solid 7-3 win over Dover at sunny but cold Memorial Park.

“I am very happy with both Hunter and Mason. They both turned in strong efforts,” Sliva said. “If we did a better job behind them, they would have been even more impressive.”

St. Clairsville was guilty of five errors.

“It is a nice way to start the season. Dover has a strong program year-in and year-out,” Sliva added. “It’s only one game but beating a team we have a lot of respect for is a good way to get things started.”

Hoffman pocketed the mound win. The savvy sophomore southpaw worked the first five innings, fanning five and walking just three.

Myers earned the save with two sharp innings of relief work. He struck out one and did not issue a walk.

St. Clairsville, coming off an OVAC championship and regional tournament season via its 20-8 mark, wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard, plating two runs in the opening frame.

Senior Jaren Starks and sophomore standout Braylen Blomquist opened with back-to-back singles. They both came home on a two-out single by Hoffman.

Dover knotted the count at 2-2 in the second. The Tornadoes used a walk and three Red Devil errors to tally both of their runs.

St. Clairsville quickly regained the lead in the home half of the second. Junior Zac Vickers singled and subsequently scored on a sacrifice fly from Starks.

The Red Devils stretched their lead to 4-2 in the third. Myers opened the frame with a double. Joey Balgo followed with a single. Marcus Bush drew a base-on-balls to load the bases.

Myers was erased on a fielder’s choice. Logan Shields brought home Balgo with a groundout RBI.

The hosts made it a 5-2 affair in the fourth. Austin Porter was hit-by-a-pitch leading off the frame. He came home via a Blomquist single.

Dover’s final run came in the fourth, courtesy of two Tornado singles and another Red Devil miscue.

St. C. tacked on two insurance runs in the fifth inning. Balgo singled and scored on a Hoffman double. Vickers brough Hoffman home with a single.

Sliva’s charges finished with 10 hits. Blomquist, Balgo, Hoffman and Vickers all contributed two hits each.

Hoffman and Myers limited Dover to just four hits. Nolan Kelicker had two singles to pace the Tornadoes.

Matt Dummermuth took the mound loss. He tossed four innings, walking two while failing to record a strikeout.

“We were a little shaky in the field at times but we were able to limit the damage. We did not let things snowball,” Sliva noted. “We got some quality at-bats from several players.

“There are still a lot of things we can do better. That is understandable being so early in the season,” he continues. “We will keep working to get better. We got a lot of baseball still to play.”

St. C. is back into action this afternoon, playing host to Union Local.