Photo/KRISTIN MAZGAJ St. Clairsville senior Tyler Tonkovich is tagged out by Wheeling Park catcher Luke Marsh during the early innings of Tuesday’s game in Wheeling. The Patriots rolled, 14-3.

WHEELING – Having not played a game in a week, Coach Steve Myers could only hope that his Wheeling Park baseball team continued its heavy-hitting, run-scoring ways that allowed them to win five of their first six games this season with a quality St. Clairsville squad visiting the hilltop.

Those hopes were realized early on as the Patriots collected 11 hits, scored 12 runs and sent 21 batters to the dish over the first two frames in a five-inning conquest of the Red Devils.

Dylan Gongola scatted six hits in the complete game victory and Wheeling Park’s 15-hit attack was highlighted by eight extra-base hits, including a pair of long first inning home runs, as the Patriots scored early and often in steamrolling St. Clairsville by a 14-3 margin on Patriot Field Tuesday afternoon.

Both Wheeling Park (6-1) and Coach Tom Sliva’s St. Clairsville (11-6) squad entered yesterday’s game sitting in second place in their respective classes in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference standings with Wednesday’s cut-off date quickly approaching.

After the Red Devils got the scoring started in the top of the first Tuesday with a little small ball, a bunt single, wild pitch and Tyler Tonkovich base hit to right field, the Patriots answered in a big way in the bottom of the frame with the long ball.

Noah Seivertson reached on a one-out fielder’s choice right before James Salvatori jacked the first pitch he saw deep over the center field fence for a two-run blast and a 2-1 lead. Gongola worked a walk on a 3-2 offering and Gian Degenova followed with the second two-run homer of the inning with a shot to deep left.

Luke Marsh added an RBI double in the frame while Avery Lee’s second hit of the inning chased home another run. St. Clairsville did not help themselves with a pair of errors. In all, Wheeling Park sent 12 batters to plate, picked up six hits and recorded seven runs.

Myers’ squad didn’t slow down in the second, sending nine more batters to plate and pushing across five more runs to up the margin to 12-1. The big hit was a bases-loaded, no-out, Marsh double down the right field line while Gage Thomas, Billy Gooch and Lee all chased home runs as well.

Back-to-back doubles from Gongola and DeGenova to start the third increased the lead for the hosts before Thomas’ third single, and second RBI, of the game, made it 14-2 after three. Will Balgo had an RBI single for the Devils in the top of the third while Marcus Bush’s run-scoring double in the fourth made it 14-3.

“We have been off for a week and the kids came into this game really excited to get the chance to step up to the plate and hit,” Myers said. “Coach (Chad) Stout is our hitting coach and has done a great job and the kids have been really effective hitting in practice and it is showing on the field. They really want to go out there and produce every game.

“This was a really great effort (Tuesday). We kind of lean on our pitching and defense a little bit because we feel like our offense has definitely been showing up. And we put everything together against St. Clairsville. We have nine seniors on this team, and they just can’t wait to get into the lineup and into games and show what they can do.

“It’s been a great start to the season, but we still just want to go out and take things one game at a time. We travel to play a pretty good John Marshall team on Wednesday, so we need to be ready for that next.”

The first eight hitters in the Patriots’ starting lineup all had at least one hit by the end of the second inning and while the ninth batter didn’t have a hit, he had produced an RBI. Thomas had three singles and a pair of RBI for the winners while Marsh and Gongola each doubled twice, with Marsh chasing home three runs. Degenova and Salvatori both had a home run and double, with three and two RBI respectively.

Jaren Starks had two singles and Bush an RBI double for the Devils.

“We just told the kids to get home quickly, take a shower and wash this one away and forget about it,” Sliva commented. “Adversity strikes in baseball often but the key is to learn from it and hopefully it helps you in the future. This was a butt-beating (Tuesday), but they hit the ball so well. The three pitchers we used have actually pitched well coming into this one, including our starter who is only a freshman.”