Photo by Nick Henthorn St. Clairsville Post 159’s Kody Carver, who graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central this past year, winds up for a pitch against Moundsville Post 3 during a regular season game this summer.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville Post 159 have enjoyed a successful season this summer, and are hoping to keep on trucking into the postseason next week after wrapping up their regular season on Saturday.

A lot of their horsepower has come from new territory.

St. Clairsville Post 159 has many players from the high school that shares its namesake- players like Brody Saunders and OVAC 4A Player of the Year Hunter Hoffman. But it has also long drawn from more than just the Red Devils baseball program- a couple examples this year include Peyton Blue from River High School and Tyler Stottlemyer from Shadyside.

With the recent decline in the number of American Legion baseball teams across the area, this season Post 159 found themselves drawing from a talent pool which reached a little further north than usual.

“Steubenville’s Post did not field a team so we were able to go up north and grab three quality guys,” Post 159 head coach Mike Muklewicz said. “They’ve all contributed a lot this season. They’re great kids, and great roster adds on top of the core we already had down here.”

The trio includes Aydan Manning, who graduated this year from Steubenville High School, Kody Carver, who likewise graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central, and Sylus Hyde from Indian Creek.

All three have been near-everyday players for Post 159, and all have played their part in helping Post 159 to wins. In their most recent game against Post 3, Carver earned the win with six innings of one-run ball and nine strikeouts, Manning finished 1-2 with a run and an RBI, and Hyde launched a two-run home run, finishing 2-3 with three RBI.

While they are producing on the diamond, the three are grateful just to be out there at all this summer.

“It was great to still have an opportunity through this team to still play summer ball,” Manning said. “These guys are great, they welcomed everybody who was new. Everybody gets along really well and it’s nice to come out and play ball with some new guys.”

Legion teams often draw from a bigger pool than in-season high school teams, so integrating players from a new area was not so much a new wrinkle as a new version of what happens every summer.

“This is part of the fun of it,” Muklewicz said. “Legion ball, you’re all playing against each other in the spring and then you all get in the same dugout. Two weeks in they’re best friends and they’re spending a lot of time together in the summer. That’s what Legion ball is all about, that’s what we try and build here- a good atmosphere for kids to develop and try and get ready to go play some college baseball.”

“It’s been awesome,” Carver said. “Coach [Muklewicz] gave me this opportunity, and I appreciate it. We were welcomed by these guys. We don’t get to play them too much, coming from Central, but it was awesome getting to know them and we gelled pretty quickly.”

A big part of that bonding, Hyde says, took part during the team’s trip to Myrtle Beach to play in the Palmetto Invitational back in June.

“Coming down here, they were really welcoming,” Hyde said. “Especially after we went down to the beach, everybody bonded pretty quickly.”

Hyde saw some parallels between his new team and his old one, Jefferson County Post 33, and how they would field a team from a far-reaching area.

“In a way it’s almost like Post 33 was, drawing from all the schools from around here,” Hyde, a junior at Creek next year, said.

With the team moving in lockstep at this point in the summer, they turn their collective attention to the double-elimination Region 8 tournament, where they will first face Beverly-Lowell.

“Can’t wait,” Carver said. “We’ve got to get on a roll this postseason and start heating up now. We’re feeling good.”

“Everybody has each other’s backs,” Manning said.