In fact, for Wheeling Post 1, they’re still ascending to the zenith of their time together as a team.

“Winning a state championship, I thought that they’d be satisfied,” Post 1 assistant coach Isaac Rine said. “And this was just kind of a bonus, a reward for winning the state championship- which it is. But these guys are focused, they’re excited and they want to go win the region. That’s where our head is at right now.”

Post 1, fresh off an American Legion W.Va. Baseball Championship, is practicing this week for the upcoming American Legion Regional Tournament, set for Aug. 7-11. Wheeling is set to represent West Virginia in the Mid-Atlantic Region, one of eight American Legion regional tournaments.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Post 1’s Jared Marsh said. “It’s been seven years since the last team won a state championship and went down. To play a big team- I’m pretty sure we’re playing New York- and that’s a bigger state, so they’re going to be good. We have to come out and practice hard the next three, four days and make sure we’re at the top of our game.”

photo by: Nick Henthorn

Wheeling Post 1’s Jaxon Murray makes a throw from shortstop to first base during a regular season game earlier in the summer. Next week, Murray and Post 1 will head to Ridge, Maryland for the American Legion Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament, starting on Aug. 7.

Post 1 will indeed be playing the New York State Champion in a region that also includes Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The teams will play in Ridge, Maryland, and Post 1 is set to depart on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. with a send-off at the White Palace at Wheeling Park.

They reached this point after a thrilling run through the West Virginia State Tournament, a six-game odyssey which saw Post 1 drop their first game in the double-elimination tournament and then proceed to win five straight games to claim the crown.

“Losing the first game and then the ups and downs of the next five days, it was incredible,” Rine said. “It’s something that I know this group will never forget, personally I’ll never forget it. The coaching staff talked about it every night we went back to the hotel- “these guys keep finding a way to win.” The atmosphere that was created by the fight these guys had is something that we’ll hold onto.”

Post 1(29-7) lost their first game to Charleston Post 65 on July 25 before beating Potomac Valley Post 64, South Charleston Post 94, and Bridgeport Post 68 over the next three days to get to the championship game.

“The state tournament was tons of fun,” Wheeling’s Alex Taylor said. “Everytime I think about it, more memories come up- the games, the hotel, the guys the whole time- and baseball-wise, everything just started clicking for us. Everything fell into place, and we started playing really good baseball when it was survive and advance everyday. We ended up getting it done and I couldn’t be more happy.”

“Winning five in a row, it was tough. Going into the first game we kind of thought we had to win it in order to have a chance, and when we didn’t, it was kind of a blow. But I was proud of us that we didn’t give up and took it one-by-one, day-by-day, that was our motto the whole time.”

Playing from the loser’s bracket, Post 1 met Morgantown Post 2 in the championship game on July 29, needing to beat Post 2 twice on the same day.

Post 1 won the first game 7-5 and the winner-take-all match 8-2.

“The championship game- not having to play them just once but having to beat them two times in a row- everyone knows how hard it is to do that, to go and beat a good team twice,” Marsh said. “We did just that. I think we really deserved it, we have a really quality team and we’re looking forward to regionals.”

“We couldn’t be more proud of those guys,” Rine said. “No one’s going to be able to take that away from us. We didn’t walk in there and play teams that weren’t very good, the talent down there was ridiculous this year, especially that Morgantown team we had to beat twice for the championship, they were on a 20-game win streak. The coaching staff was a little bit emotional after the game just looking at these guys and the fight that they had. We lose to a team that we probably shouldn’t have lost to in game one. We took some words from guys, the South Charleston team, we’re buddies with the Charleston team and we took it from them, we heard from all the teams and just them responding to that not negatively, but positively, was huge and really propelled us.”

The state championship, and ticket to the regionals, was Post 1’s first since 2017, a year where Rine was a senior in high school and a member of the Post 1 squad.

Wheeling Post 1 will face Smith Post 24 (26-4) in the regional. The winners of eight regional tournaments advance to the American Legion World Series in Shelby, North Carolina, Aug. 15-20.

“I actually sent a picture the other day of me in 2017, I was a little kid last time we went,” Taylor said. “We’re really excited to go and compete with the other states, I think it’s really awesome that we’re going to represent the whole state of West Virginia and play for that, get to play in a really cool stadium and get one more trip with the guys. I can’t wait.”