Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling’s Luke Marsh makes contact during Sunday’s Beast of the East Semifinal.

RICHMOND — Things looked good early on Sunday but the Beast of the East can be pretty wild.

After taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning, the Wheeling Wildthings surrendered four unanswered runs in a 4-2 loss to the tournament’s eventual champ, the Hiland Hawks, in the 34th Annual Beast of the East Classic Seminal at Edison High School.

“I thought the kids played really well all weekend,” Wildthings assistant coach Bill Gooch said. “We had our ups and downs early and made a couple of mistakes in this game but I thought we played really well.

“Things just didn’t fall our way. Hiland is a good team. We had a really good game (Sunday) morning and beat a really good team there, so overall everybody is happy with the performance.”

Brennan Sobutka was solid for the Wildthings as he went six innings with six strikeouts and two walks.

Michael Bittinger (triple) and Luca DiLorenzo (single) collected the team’s two lone hits, while Sobutka helped his cause with a RBI.

Nolan Yoder and Cody Yoder plated runs for the Hawks, while Isaak Yoder pitched a complete game with six strikeouts to secure the victory.

Wheeling finished the tournament with a 5-3 record.

“We lost three really close games,” Gooch said. “We lost in the bottom of the seventh, we lost this game and we lost a close game to Post 1.

“We have a really good group of kids and they play well together. They are not an emotional group. They are calm and confident. They play hard and they get after it the whole game.”