Photo by Cody Nespor Wheeling’s Nate Simon collects the first of his three hits in the second inning of Post 1’s 18-2 win over Moundsville Post 3 Wednesday evening at the J.B. Chambers I-470 Sports Complex.

ELM GROVE — Wheeling Post 1 began its preparations for next week’s American Legion Area 1 Tournament with an 18-2 win over Mounvsille Post 3 at the J.B. Chambers I-470 Sports Complex Wednesday evening.

With the Area Tournament set to start next Tuesday, Post 1 will play all four of their area foes this week. After beating Moundsville Wednesday, Post 1 will play Wellsburg Post 34 tonight, Fairmont Post 15 Friday and Follansbee Post 45 on Saturday.

“We have all of our area foes coming up, kind of out of design but kind of because we don’t have a ton of time to get these games in,” Post 1 skipper Jon-Michael Brunner admitted. “The idea behind this week is just to get them in front of the competition that they’re going to play and just get a good feel for where they’re going to be stacking up coming into next week.”

Post 1 (21-13) has already played each of the other teams in its area this season, so this week will be less about scouting the other teams and more about focusing on themselves.

“We know that if we just take care of what we can control, the baseball stuff will take care of itself,” Brunner said. “It doesn’t really matter who we play, as long as we’re doing what we can do and focusing in our at-bats on every pitch and doing the little things.”

Wednesday’s game was a good start to the preparations for Post 1 as eight of its nine starters either had multiple hits or drove in a run.

The offensive assault got started early when Dylan Gongola sent a ball over the left field fence for a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning. That gave Post 1 a 2-1 lead after Moundsville had pushed a run across in the top half of the frame.

Post 3 tied the game in the top of the second on an RBI by Nate Berhalter, but Post 1 scored three more in the bottom half to regain the lead.

The big inning was the bottom of the third, when Post 1 pushed 10 runs across thanks to four hits and eight walks. The big blows of the inning came on a two-run single by Michael Toepfer, followed up by a two-run triple from Jack Selmon.

“This past week we had a little bit of a lull in terms of our approach at the dish,” Brunner said. “I’m hoping this week they can get back to that — being aggressive at the plate with less than two outs, when guys are in scoring position getting them in.”

Gongola, Jared Marsh and Dylan Hodgson drove in a run each in the inning and three other runs came across on passed balls. Post 1 drew 11 total walks in the 5-inning game.

“Their pitcher struggled a little bit finding the zone, but give our guys credit, they didn’t chase anything bad and waited until they got their pitch,” Brunner said. “They did a good job and took care of business rolling into the Area Tournament next week.”

Luke Myers got the win on the mound, throwing four innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts. Jack Scouvart came on to pitch a perfect top of the fifth.

Gongola finished with a single, home run, three RBI and a walk. Toepfer also drove in three with a single, walk and sacrifice fly. Nate Simon was on base all four times with three singles, a walk and an RBI, Braydon Kupsky had two hits and an RBI, Marsh had a double and RBI, Selmon had a triple and two RBI, Quinn Jamison had an RBI single and Hodgson drove in two.

For Post 3, Chad Frazier had a single and an automatic double down the left field line, Berhalter had a single and an RBI and Luke Crammer finished with a run batted in.

Moundsville will not play again until the Area 1 Tournament starts next Tuesday.

Wheeling 18, Moundsville 2, 5 Innings

M 1-1-0 0-0 — 2 5 2

W 2-3-10 3-x — 18 12 1

MOUNDSVILLE — Gorby lp (1K, 5BB), Coulter (3) (0K, 5BB), Smith (3) (0K, 0BB), Berhalter (4) (2K, 1BB) and Harrison, Murray. Berhalter S, rbi; Crammer rbi; Frazier S, D.

WHEELING — Myers wp (6K, 3BB), Scouvart (5) (0K, 0BB) and Selmon. Marsh D, rbi; Gongola S, HR, 3rbi; Toepfer S, 3rbi; Selmon T, 2rbi; Simon 3S, rbi; Kupsky 2S, rbi; Hodgson 2rbi; Jamison S, rbi.