Wheeling Post 1 Falls In 19U Beast Of The East Semifinals

Jokers Claim 14U Bracket Championship

WHEELING - Wheeling Post 1 reeled off seven consecutive victories to start the 38th annual Edgar Martin Beast of the East Baseball Tournament. However, it couldn't get victory No. 8 on the weekend.

Sunday afternoon at Patriot Field on the campus of Wheeling Park High School, third-seeded West Hills Armory, of suburban Pittsburgh, led second-seeded Wheeling 6-0 with two outs and a runner on first in the top of the fifth inning when the lightning siren situated atop Wheeling Park High School's wrestling room sounded, halting the 19U Division semifinal contest with 31 minutes remaining in the two-hour time limit.

After several rounds of talks between both team's managers and Beast of the East Director Bo McConnaughey, the game was ruled a complete game, and due to the weather forecast, top-seeded WV Outsiders - from the Fairmont/Bridgeport area - were declared the 19U champions. They routed Blaze Baseball 10-0 in the other semifinal.

"Definitely not the result we wanted today," Post 1 (18-4) manager Scott Castilow said. "West Hills is a good team. They were a good team last year (when they won the title) and they were a quality team once again today. They had a great pitcher that kept our hitters off balance.

"Overall, to go 7-1 on the weekend against some good competition, it was a good weekend for us," Castilow continued.

West Hills scored twice in the first and added three runs in the second to sprint to a 5-0 lead and never looked back against Wheeling starter Aleks Zanieski, who threw 78 pitches in his three innings of work.

"We didn't make a couple of plays that we normally do and it cost us," Castilow added.

West Hills Armory starter Brayden Radue, a senior-to-be at Canon-MacMillan High School, held the usually potent Wheeling bats to a pair of harmless singles by Chris Upton (3rd inning) and Brady Ernest (4th inning). The righty struck out just three and walked two while hitting a batter among his 64 pitches.

Radue retired the first six batters he faced before walking Kayden Knapp to start the bottom of the third. However, a 5-4-3 double play stopped the momentum before No. 9 hitter, Rhyder Dlesk, was hit with an 0-1 pitch. Upton singled sharply to right field but was eased on a fielder's choice.

West Hills added a run in the fourth to make it 6-0.

Colton Prosperi, who is headed to Hagerstown (Md.) Community College in the fall, singled twice and drove in three runs. Jake Federouch, who will be a freshman at Penn State-Behren, also singled twice, knocking in a run. 

Wheeling's game scheduled for Tuesday against Morgantown has been canceled. Post 1 will travel to Monarch Field in Glendale on Wednesday to face Moundsville Post 3 in an Area One matchup. Thursday's game against Uniontown (Pa.) is also up-in-air.

In the 14U Bracket, the Jokers captured the crown with a 10-3 victory. The 16U Bracket was still being played.