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CAMBRIDGE -- When St. Clairsville fell into the loser's bracket of the American Legion Region 8 Tournament after just two games, manager Mike Muklewicz and his staff knew it would take a monumental effort for their team to reach the state tournament.
Post 159 needed to win five straight games if it wanted to advance to the state tournament in Lancaster. After stringing together four consecutive elimination-game victories, including a stunning, 12-7, come-from-behind win over Beverly Lowell on Tuesday night, that impressive run came to a screeching halt a night later.
Post 305/750 scored three times in the top of the sixth inning for a 4-2 nod in a winner-take-all championship game on sun-filled Don Coss Field in the City Parks. It will mark the third straight summer that the Washington County contingent will represent eastern Ohio at Beavers Field in Lancaster.
"You've got (Drake Dobson) at OVAC Football Camp who didn't get a chance to get here and we had a miscommunication with our pitch count on our (No.) 2-3 pitcher (Kyle Storer) who we were going to roll out there," Muklewicz said. "But, for never throwing a pitch all season, Jacob Probst is a competitor and athlete. He came out and kept us in the game for four innings. Then we had to use our catcher (Jakob Jarvis) to pitch. It was like a jigsaw puzzle for us trying to put this together.
"We (the coaching staff of Dave Blomquist and Luke Slavik) were kind of looking at each other when we were up 2-1 going into the sixth and said, 'if we pull this one off it will be incredible the way we pieced it together,' but the wheels just fell off," he added. "It's as simple as that.
"That's a very good hitting team. They are a very-well coached team," he said while pointing towards the Beverly-Lowell dugout. "Todd (Engle) does a really good job with them."
St. Clairsville (22-10) fell behind 1-0 in the second when Luke Nelson singled home Clayton Cook with one out. Cook had drawn a leadoff walk and went to second on a base-on-balls to Seth Dennis. Both runners moved up 90-feet on a wild pitch before the left-handed hitting Nelson slapped the ball to left.
Beverly-Lowell (27-7), which finished as state runnerup to Circleville last summer in the state, threatened in the third, but Tate Engle was thrown out at the plate trying to score from third on a wild pitch. Post 159 catcher Jakob Jarvis retrieved a ball that trickled away from him and threw a strike to Probst covering the plate.
Post 159 finally broke through in the bottom of the inning against Beverly-Lowell's Kurt Taylor. Matthew Busby and Mason Ramsay recorded back-to-back singles with one out before both scooted up a base on a wild pitch. Probst then helped his own cause when he ripped a single over shortstop as Busby and Ramsay scored to give the Belmont Countians a 2-1 margin.
"That was huge," Muklewicz said of Probst's hit.
Jarvis followed with a drive to left-center as Probst raced to third. When the throw went that way, Jarvis alertly took second. However, Taylor fanned the next batter to end the threat.
That strikeout started the Warren Local junior-to-be on a game-ending streak in which he retired 13 of 15 Post 159 batters. Taylor finished with a dozen strikeouts and no walks. He hit one batter and allowed seven hits, four coming in the third.
"Looking back at the season I just wanted to put a competitive program on the field each night and I think we did that," Muklewicz said. "We wanted to make Belmont County proud of us. We put a good group of players together. We had a lot of success this year."
Of the players on the roster, only two will not return next summer -- those being Ramsay and Kyle Storer.
"Those two kids have been 4- and 3-year mainstays for us. They will be sorely, sorely missed on and off the field. Great kids with great character and leadership."
Busby had two of St. Clairsville's seven singles. He followed Jarvis to the mound. The trio fanned three, issued eight free passes and hit a batter.