Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Hunter Hoffman slides into second base while attempting to steal the base Monday night against Beverly-Lowell during Region 8 American Legion tournament action at Gant Stadium in Zanesville. Hoffman was tagged out.

ZANESVILLE — Beverly-Lowell Post 389/750 and St. Clairsville Post 159 have dominated the Region 8 Tournament for the past decade. Each won a championship several times during that span.

The two heavyweights will meet Tuesday night at 6 on the natural grass surface at Gant Stadium to decide the title once again after Post 389/750 (25-10) forced a deciding game with a resounding 8-0 victory on Monday. Tonight’s victory advances to the state tournament later in the week in Lancaster at Beavers Field.

With its backs to the wall, Beverly-Lowell took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Dawson Layton’s shallow fly to center with two outs dropped between a pair of diving Post 159 players as Ian Ellis raced home. A throwing error aided the inning.

Post 389/750 played some small-ball in the fourth when they tallied four runs on a like number of hits in increasing the margin to 5-0.

“We know how talented they are and what arms they are throwing at us,” Beverly-Lowell manager Todd Engle said. “We knew we had to press the issue today and be aggressive as far as bunting the baseball. But that’s how we play. We like to play small-ball at times.”

Ellis led off with the first of his two doubles and went to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Owen McCoy walked and Lucas Cox laid down a bunt that resulted in an RBI single as Ellis scored.

Layton followed with another bunt single to load the bases. With two outs, Easton Eible cleared the bases with a shot to the gap in left-center for a three-run double.

Beverly-Lowell tacked on a trio of insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Wade Pauley singled in the first and Ellis recorded his second two-bagger that produced the final two tallies.

“You know what they say? ‘Beating a team three times in a season is tough, but beating them four times is, obviously, a little tougher,'” St. Clairsville manager Mike Muklewicz. “We got that out of the way and we’re now 3-1 on the season against them. We had to win one of two here, so I guess we’ll have to do it the second time.”

That was more than enough support for lanky righthander JR Curry. He only struck out one batter and issued a free pass, but recorded 14 flyball outs, something that didn’t sit well with Muklewicz. Post 159 managed a mere four hits, with Treston Nemeth’s double the lone extra-base safety. In fact, Nemeth and Ethan White (who walked and went to second on Zach Vickers single in the fifth) were the only two runners to reach second. Neither went any further.

“I’m going to speak to the guys about all the fly balls,” Muklewicz noted. “Take nothing away from their pitcher, but he was nothing that we haven’t seen before. We just couldn’t get any runners on base and then move them over.

“We didn’t have good approaches at the plate,” he added. “I don’t think we wanted it as much as they did.

Neither manager wanted to disclose who he would hand the ball to in today’s win-or-go-home contest.