St. Clairsville (10-2) scored at least one run in the first four innings Monday night and never looked back in doubling up visiting Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 by a 6-3 count on the cloud-covered Memorial Park diamond.

The hosts plated two runs in the bottom of the first, added one in the second and tallied twice more in the third before taking on a solo marker in the fourth.

“Four out of six isn’t bad,” Muklewicz said while looking at the scoreboard in center field and surveying the score by innings. “I was a little worried about how we would come out at the start because we haven’t played in nearly a week, but the kids responded. We scored consistently to start and I kept telling them ‘no zeroes. No zeroes.'”

Will Balgo continued his red-hot hitting when he drove a one-out single up the middle to knock in Braylen Blomquist.

Colin Snedeker followed with a sacrifice fly to right that drove in Mason Myers to make it 2-0.

A double steal upped the margin to 3-0 in the second. With one out, Kaden Banal doubled to right and went to third on a perfectly placed bunt by Jaren Starks.

With the count 2-2 on Chance Maffe, Starks broke for second and drawing the throw as Banal sprinted home without a return throw.

Post 159 made it 5-0 in the third as Myers tripled to deep right-center leading off and waltzed home on a Balgo fly ball to center. With two outs, Drew Sefsick and Jake Heatherington collected back-to-back singles before Banal walked to load the bases. Starks then watched a 3-1 pitch sail wide of the plate as he picked up an RBI to make it 5-0.

Myers, who ended up a homer shy of the cycle, raced home when no play was made on Sefsick’s bouncer to third in the fourth.

“Mason had a heck of a game at the plate,” Muklewicz added. “He’s one of those kids that comes to the field every day ready to play. You never have to say anything to him to pump him up.”

All the while, Colby Shriver doing was he does best on the hill, retiring batters. The right-hander had faced just one batter over the minimum entering the fifth — he walked the second batter of the game — but yielded a leadoff triple to Jacob Huffman. He lost his shutout when Huffman scored on a groundout.

“Any time Colby takes the mound we’ve got a good chance at winning because he is a competitor,” Muklewicz noted. “He’s the pitcher you want in big games like this.”

Shriver gave up an unearned run in the sixth before getting an inning-ending double play. He finished with six strikeouts and two walks. He allowed three hits and threw 61 strikes among his 87 deliveries to the plate.

In addition to the three hits by Myers, Balgo and Sefsick evenly divided four singles as Post 159 banged out 11 safeties.

Hunter Hoffman pitched the seventh. He struck out one and walked one.

After a couple of mercy-rule victories in their recent outings, Muklewicz said a game like last night was just what the doctor ordered.

“Beverly/Lowell is our big district rival. I knew they weren’t going to come in here and just let us score and score,” Muklewicz said. “I told the kids we might have rolled past a couple of teams recently, but they are going to be playing in some high-intensity games coming up. Tonight was one of them and they kids played well.”

St. Clairsville remains at home today when Jefferson County Teramana Post 33 visits Belmont County. Beverly/Lowell fell to 17-7.