Photo by Andrew Grimm St. Clairsville pitcher Dylan Gregorcic delivers to the plate during legion baseball action on Monday.

By ANDREW GRIMM

For The Intelligencer

RICHMOND — After falling behind early, Jefferson County Teramana Post 33 battled back to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth.

St. Clairsville, however, had one more big inning in it.

Visiting Post 159 plated four runs in the top of the seventh to take a 7-3 lead and it’s Jake Heatherington slammed the door shut in the bottom half to seal win No. 8 in 10 games for St. Clairsville.

The decisive offensive outburst came aided by a couple of Post 33 errors, which made it sting even more for coach Anthony Pierro and company.

“We had a couple errors in the last inning and a few throughout the whole game,” Pierro said. “We’ve got to figure out how (to make plays), right now we’re not.”

One of the big hits in the seventh came from the same bat as a big blast in the first — that of third baseman Drew Sefsick.

Sefsick blasted a two-run homer into the small pond beyond the center field wall in the first inning to make it 3-0 Post 159, then drove in two more runs with a base knock with the bases loaded in the seventh, making it 7-3 after Brayden Blomquist had broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run single.

“Sefsick came up with a couple of big hits,” Post 159 coach Mike Mulkewicz said. “He got us going with a two-run homer and you love to see that in the first inning. That’s a kid that lost his football and basketball seasons so its great to see him coming back and having a good season.”

After Sefsick’s blast, Post 33 (10-7) starter Cooper Blackburn settled in and put up five-straight zeroes before things unraveled in the seventh. He fanned six and took the loss, though just three of the seven runs were earned. His Big Red teammate J.T. Thompson fired the final 2/3 of an inning with a punch out.

“Cooper threw great for us, he battled the whole game,” Pierro said. “Those couple errors kept the last inning alive. He kept us in it and that’s all you can ask for.”

While Blackburn held St. C at bay after the first, his teammates slowly clawed back into the game.

Indian Creek’s Landon Pownall scored after a two-out error in the bottom of the second, then, in the bottom of the fourth, Creek grad David Ferroni reached on an error, stole second and third, then scored when a throw to third sailed into the outfield to make it 3-2.

Ferroni factored into the tying run in the sixth, too, as it was his RBI single that plated Thomson.

“It seems like every time we go up in the first inning, I don’t know what it is, but the energy kind of goes down and you’re hoping (the other team doesn’t chip away,” Muklewicz said. “That’s exactly what happened, but luckily the guys came together at the end. I told them you’ve got to reset and treat it like a 0-0 ballgame and we finally put a couple things together (in the seventh).

“I was very happy with the way they responded after going dead for a little bit.”

St. C’s Dylan Gregorcic threw the first 5 1/3 with two strikeouts, then Heatherington got the win in relief throwing the final 1 2/3, also fanning two.

“You’ve got to give (Post 33) credit, that’s a scrappy program, they don’t go away,” Mulkewicz said.

BUSY SCHEDULE

Post 33 is scheduled to play every day this week, including in the Beast of the East this weekend.

“We play every day the rest of the week so we have a lot of chances to keep getting better,” Pierro said. “It’s going to be a lot of pitching but I think we’re going to be OK.”

UP NEXT:

St. Clairsville: Will face Cambridge on the road today.

Jefferson County: Is set to host New Philadelphia today.