Post 1 Runs Wild In Area 1 Tournament vs. Ritchie County
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WHEELING -- It would've been hard for Wheeling Post 1 to have a much better start to their Area 1 Tournament appearance.
Brady Ernest threw five one-hit innings, Post 1 collected eight extra-base hits and Wheeling defeated Ritchie County Post 83 22-0 in an abbreviated tournament game Wednesday at Wheeling Park High School.
"I don’t even remember how many hits we had, but there was enough there where, obviously, if you score that amount of runs, have that many hits, and have shutdown pitching, you’re going to be pretty thrilled with the result at the end of the day," associate head coach Scott Castilow said.
17 was the number for Post 1 against Ritchie County, led by a four-hit day from Brady Ernest, helping his own cause, and three hits from Chris Upton-- in the form of two triples and a home run. Ernest doubled and whacked three more singles. Either player ended up with three RBI. Jake Brown also had three RBI on a single and a double.
Wheeling led 4-0 after one inning of play and 10-0 after two innings, and broke off 11 runs in the third.
Ernest struck out seven and did not issue a walk. The Wheeling Central product shrunk his ERA down below 0.50 with the scoreless frames.
Pitching has been a strength for Wheeling all summer.
"He did great today," Castilow said of Ernest. "My biggest thing is no walks, right? That’s always our biggest thing. There's no defense for that. But, he pitched outstanding today. He’s had some really, really tremendous outings the last few times he’s been on the hill. Outside of him, we are pretty deep as far as pitching goes, which is a luxury."
"We got Jake Brown, we got Aleks [Zanieski], we got [Steven] Brodegard-- those are probably our horses, I would say, right out of the gate. The nice thing is, we can go in the bullpen to [Kayden] Knapp, we got [Erik] Blazier, we got [Tucker] Doty, we have guys that are chomping at the bit, so to speak. You know, [pitching coach] Dustin Henry does a really good job with our staff and making sure that they’re always prepared and ready for the games that they’re toeing the rubber. Brady had a great day, an outstanding day today."
Brody Groome and Dom Fato doubled for Post 1, and Kayden Knapp tallied a triple. Nolan Yanchak knocked in a pair of runs. Every member of the Post 1 starting nine recorded at least one hit and one RBI.
Wheeling drew eight walks.
Into Friday, just keep rolling with the momentum, right? Obviously, you know, it’s easy to, easy to put a lineup together, but the game happens between the lines, right? So all the credit goes to those guys showing up every day ready to rock and roll, you know, just carrying the momentum. Hopefully, you know, hitting is contagious.
So hopefully these hits will stick around all the way till Friday and we’ll hopefully get out of here as the number 1 seed in the area and make our way down to Beckley.
Post 1 will host Parkersburg Post 15 on Thursday as the Area 1 Tournament continues.