Photo by Cody Nespor Wheeling Post 1 pitcher Braydon Kupsky throws a pitch toward home plate during Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Moundsville Post 3. Kupsky struck out nine as he pitched a complete-game shutout.

GLEN DALE — The longest day of the year thankfully did not feature the longest ballgame of the year as Wheeling Post 1 went on the road and blanked Moundsville Post 3 6-0 Tuesday afternoon.

Post 1 starting pitcher Braydon Kupsky tossed a gem, hurling the team’s first complete game and first shutout of the summer.

“We know Kupsky’s going to be around the zone for the most part and he did a great job,” Post 1 skipper Jon-Michael Brunner said. “Kup kept the ball down and that gave us a little bit more flexibility in the field today.”

Kupsky, who plays for Wheeling Park during the school year, punched out nine batters and scattered five hits across seven innings of work while Post 1 played error-free defense behind him.

At the plate, Wheeling scored in every inning except two, keeping near-constant pressure on Moundsville’s pitchers.

Wheeling did a good job of getting on the board in the top of the first inning when Michael Toepfer and Alex Taylor had back-to-back run-scoring hits with two outs. They pushed another run across in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly by Jared Marsh to make it a 3-0 lead.

That kind of situational hitting is what Brunner believes will make the difference for Post 1 this summer.

“How I live, there’s two kinds of people, there’s people that talk about doing it and there’s people that do it,” Brunner said.

“We’re still in that group of guys that just talk about doing it. It was nice (Tuesday) to be the guys that got it done.”

Following the two-run top of the first, Post 1 scored one run in every frame except the tops of the fifth and seventh. The team collected a dozen hits, five for extra bases.

“I was happy with how they hit (Tuesday),” Brunner said. “We’re still leaving guys out there (on base) but I think they were more sprinkled in than in the past.”

Toepfer finished with three hits, one double, and two RBI. He would have had four hits and two doubles, but was ruled out when Moundsville appealed that he did not touch first base on a run-scoring hit in the top of the third.

“If we get thrown out now, that’s okay,” Brunner said. “We’re going to learn from it and hopefully won’t make those mistakes as we get closer to area and state (tournaments).”

Marsh, Alex Taylor, Zach Taylor and Jack Scouvart all had one RBI. Scouvart and Quinn Jamison each had a double while Alex Taylor and Xavier Fankhouser each hit a triple.

Cole Sutphin started on the mound for Post 3 and lasted three innings, allowing four runs while striking out three. He was followed by Carson Gorby and Chad Frazier, who pitched two innings apiece and each allowed one run. Gorby racked up three strikeouts.

Brooks Harrison had two of the offense’s five hits.

“We played well,” Post 3 coach Tim Koontz said. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to be competitive and I think we’re going to be there. We didn’t play bad (Tuesday).”

Post 3 loaded the bases in the bottom of the third inning, but failed to score when a close play at first base didn’t go their way.

“We’ve been playing pretty good ball,” Koontz said. “We’re not winning yet, but we’ve been playing good ball.”

Moundsville will play at Barnesville Post 169 on Friday while Wheeling will play in the CAP Classic this weekend with action beginning Thursday.