Olen Ames wrapped up Thursday’s game one frame early, hitting a two-out, two-RBI single to left field to trigger a run-rule victory. Wheeling Central was steady on offense, scoring two runs in each inning after a scoreless first.

Junior Jake Brown threw the complete game on the mound, striking out eight and yielding three hits and two walks. He also knocked a single and hit an inside-the-park home run to finish with two RBI. He also walked twice.

“With us, it starts with pitching and defense,” Wheeling Central head coach Todd Cover said. “That’s kind of our calling card, our MO. Jake Brown threw a great game for us. We made some plays behind him. That’s a clean effort. Again, pitching and defense; we focus on the number that we give up. Zero is obviously a pretty good number.”

Clay Petry hit two two-run homers in a big three-hit, four-RBI day for the junior. He also doubled.

Zayne Rosnick hit a double and Matt Criniti had two singles as Central notched 10 hits as a team and drew nine walks.

“The bats came around a little bit,” Cover said. “We started off a little bit slow. I didn’t like our energy today as much as it has been, but, we came around, we hit some balls hard– they caught some of them, but we were able to push across enough to get out of here. It’s a good win against a good team. So we’ll take it and move on.”

Silas Simpson was a bright spot for Martins Ferry’s offense, notching two hits. Clayton Snyder took the loss for the Riders on the mound.

“Newsflash: Wheeling Central is better than everybody in the Valley,” Martins Ferry head coach Anthony Reasbeck said. “I can’t name a team that they’re not. They’re beating everybody in the Valley by 100. We just– we were the next one on the line.

“We schedule games like these right now and we’re getting ready to win a championship. We are. We’re getting ready to win a championship. We’re not going to play them to win a championship. They’re not in our district. You play these teams right now because if you’re playing in a couple of weeks, that team we’re playing is gonna look like the Mickey Mouse contingent. We’re going to be okay.”

Wheeling Central is now 19-4 on the season. Martins Ferry drops to 12-8.

“Hopefully it’s not too early– I like the way we’ve come together as a team,” Todd Cover said of how his team is playing heading into the final weeks of the regular season. “I think people have kind of assimilated into their roles, which is the tough part of baseball, just figuring out what your role is and what it’s going to be going forward. I think we’ve gotten to that point. We had eight guys coming back. We got some guys fighting for that ninth spot in our lineup.

“And, they’ve all done things. You know, Max [Trout] made some great catches out in left field tonight. Trent [Lander]’s been hitting the ball, and Olen [Ames]’ been hitting the ball. You know, so those three are kind of fighting for the ninth spot right now. And we got some guys on the bench that we’re pretty comfortable with too. You put it all together and, like I’ve said before, we want to be one-through-nine when the postseason comes around. And I think we’re getting close to that point.”