Photo by Andrew Grimm St. Clairsville’s Micky Balgo follows through on a swing against Big Red Thursday at the Crimson Complex.

STEUBENVILLE — Suffice it to say, it’s been an exceptional few days for the St. Clairsville baseball team amid what’s been a strong season.

After winning their second-straight OVAC Class 4A championship on Saturday and besting rival Barnesville, a recently named No. 1 seed in the upcoming Division III district tournament, the Red Devils came into the Crimson Complex and kept rolling with a 14-0 victory over Big Red.

St. C plated seven runs in the first and fifth innings and pounded out 14 hits in the win.

“We know these rivalry games are going to be against well-coached teams and will be well-played games,” St. Clairsville coach Tom Silva said. “That’s what’s fun about these games. We hope (the success) carries over to the tournament. We’re playing some really good teams and there are going to be really tough teams in the tournament. We just hope we can keep it going.”

The victory improves St. C to a sparkling 22-2 mark with one game left in the regular season and is their sixth-straight win.

Big Red was defeated for just the fifth time in 20 outings and saw a three-game win streak snapped. The teams are the No. 1 and 3 seeds in the upcoming Division II East District tournament.

“We’ll flush it be ready to play tomorrow, the sun will come up tomorrow,” Big Red head coach Fred Heatherington said. “If you take away the first and fifth, we might have had a game, but that’s way it goes.

“They’re a good team, but so are we. It was just not our day.”

The Devils came out fast, scoring three runs before the game’s first out on the way to a 7-0 lead. The big top of the first was produced by five hits and four hit batters.

Mason Myers opened the scoring with an RBI single, then Brody Saunders was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 2-0.

After a pitching change, Caleb Keenan was beaned to plate another run, then C Florence hit a sac fly to make it 4-0. Micky Balgo was then plunked to drive another run across, then Braylen Blomquist made it 6-0 with a sac fly in his second at bat of the inning and Hunter Hoffman singled in the final run of the rally.

After that, Matt Fabbro was able to settle in after replacing Bubby Reese and put up some zeroes, but Keenan was also throwing well for the Red Devils making it tough for Big Red to try and fight back into it.

“We started strong and really strung some hits together,” Silva said. “Their second pitcher really found his groove and really worked it in and out. We were able to jump on them again (in the fifth). Our pitcher did a good job, I thought, of keeping them off balance.

“(Big Red) is a really good baseball team. We’re fortunate to be able get a win here, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Steubenville’s best chance to get on the board came in the bottom of the third when Brody Saccoccia and Cal Beadling singled, putting two on with one out, but back-to-back groundouts ended the threat and those proved to be Big Red’s only hits.

A couple innings later, the Red Devils got going again, plating seven more.

Blomquist and Marcus Bush hit back-to-back singles, Hoffman grounded out but plated another run, Myers, Saunders and Ryan Ivey went back-to-back-to-back with RBI singles then Rowan Mellot singled in another run and Easton Conway brought in the game’s final run with a sac fly.

In the bottom half, the St. C infield ended things with a double play.

UP NEXT

St. Clairsville: Concludes the regular season with a matchup with Martins Ferry on Thursday.

Big Red: Travels to Edison tonight looking to bounce back before hosting Catholic Central on Thursday in the city game.