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John Marshall rallies past St. Clairsville

Big sixth sends Monarchs into sectional tournament with momentum

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — With sectional play set to begin Tuesday, John Marshall head coach Mark Cisar was looking for a little moxie from his club Friday as it clashed with Buckeye 8 champ St. Clairsville.

He got it.

The Monarchs erupted for four runs in the sixth inning and rallied past the Red Devils 6-4 on a rainy afternoon at Memorial Park.

“We did what we had to do,” Cisar said. “We rallied back. We bunted the ball well. We had a couple of nice hit-and-runs and we had some good base running, when needed.”

The game was in jeopardy at about 4 p.m. when a storm system moved in. Thunder and lighting — and most of the heavy rain — stayed to the north and south of the Belmont County seat. And when action got under way about 25 minutes later than originally scheduled, neither team seemed fazed by the delay.

In fact, both starting pitchers — JM’s Garrett Bratton and St. C.’s Tyler Tonkovich — started strong.

Bratton retired the first seven batters he faced, while Tonkovich allowed just one hit in first two innings.

The Monarchs, however, dented the scoreboard in the first, thanks to a pair of errors and a hit batsman. Izac Babiczuk plated John Davis on a fielder’s choice for the run.

JM stretched its lead to 2-0 in the third on an RBI single by Babiczuk, this one scoring DH Joel Wise.

“In the first, we didn’t make some plays and they get a run,” St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva explained. “We answered back and took the lead, but in that one big inning, they got guys on and we didn’t get the outs.”

It’s true.

The Red Devils (10-9) tied the game on a two-out, two-RBI single by Dustin Carrothers in the third, then went ahead an inning later. But Britton stayed consistent, not allowing small mistakes to turn into big innings for St. C.

“I saw that he had it and he battled,” Cisar said of Britton, who he’d planned to only throw a few innings.

“He’s either on or off. There’s really no in-between with him. (Friday), he was on; sharp curve ball. He had a couple of walks and put some pressure on himself. He got in some jams, but his teammates made some good plays behind him.”

Those teammates did the job at the plate in the sixth, slapping five hits — including three straight to start the inning.

With the bases juiced, pinch hitter Grant Swift knocked in the first run of the frame. The big blow came when Shane Dobbs ripped a chopper to third that resulted in two runs scoring.

Will Balgo scored on a sac fly by Tonkovich in the home half of the inning, but JM’s lead was too much to overcome.

“I thought we pitched really well,” Sliva said. “And (Witsberger) threw a great seventh. We just couldn’t get things to happen the way we wanted.

“That’s the story.”

Cisar said his team showed a lot of grit in the sixth and hopes it carries over to the Class AAA sectional opener against Brooke at Monarch Field.

“That seems to be how we’re playing lately,” he said. “We’re 14-15. We’ve probably made the most games in (West Virginia).

“We’re playing well at the right time. We’ll see what happens.”

The Red Devils visit Barnesville this morning at 11 before playing host to the Shamrocks on Monday for Senior Day.

Shenendoah 11, Barnesville 6

BARNESVILLE — Shenandoah scored four runs in the seventh to pull away from Barnesville and hand the Shamrocks their second loss in 19 games.

Jared Kernen and Ayden Hannahs both doubled and singled for Barnesville.

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