Photo by Jay W. Bennett St. Clairsville Post 159 righty Brody Saunders tossed a 1-hit shutout against Beverly/Lowell Sunday in the championship game of the Ohio American Legion Region 8 Tournament at Fort Frye High School in Beverly.

BEVERLY — St. Clairsville Post 159 skipper Mike Muklewicz knew his team had to come back focused for Sunday’s second championship game against Beverly-Lowell Post 389/750 with a berth in the Ohio American Legion state baseball tournament on the line for the winner-take-all showdown in the Region 8 District finale at Fort Frye High School.

Post 389/750 head man Todd Engle’s squad was short on pitching and received a complete game effort from JR Curry, but SC right-hander Brody Saunders fired a one-hit shutout during a 4-0 triumph to put Post 159 back into the state tournament for the first time since 2021.

“You got to tip your hat to him. He threw a h-ll of a game,” Engle said of Saunders, who issued two base on balls and had 10 strikeouts. “There for a while he went through a couple innings where he lost his breaking pitch, but he had enough velo(city) he was just throwing it by us.

“It’s been a long time since somebody has come in and did that to our program, so my hat is off to him. They were prepared and are always well coached. I got a little bit of experience over there at the state tournament and they got what it takes to get it done over there. With that guy on the bump they got a chance to beat anybody in the state.”

Curry, who walked one, struck out one and gave up three earned runs while scattering a baker’s dozen hits, allowed two runs in the top of the first as St. Clairsville gained early momentum.

After second baseman Max Castro laced a one-out double to the fence in center, Hunter Hoffman followed with a single to right and promptly swiped second. That brought up the cleanup hitter Saunders, who smoked a two-run double to left-center.

“That’s a great feeling whenever you see your teammates are helping you out and getting on base,” Saunders said.

“You got to put the ball in play. You got to do your job. You got a job to do.”

The SC right-hander allowed a leadoff single to Owen McCoy to start the second and then retired six straight before plunking Kainan Bradford to open the fourth.

However, he then proceeded to strike out the side before walking Easton Walker to begin the last of the fifth. Although pinch-runner Kyler Starr eventually went to third following two wild pitches, and Dominic Fry reached on another free pass, Saunders got out of the first-and-third jam after Coleman Welsh hit a hard comebacker to him that he managed to field and make the throw to first.

Saunders was more than motivated coming into the affair after making a pair of errors at shortstop during Saturday’s 9-8 first championship game setback.

“You come in here with the mentality you got a job to do and a game to win,” admitted Saunders. “I knew I had to throw strikes and with throwing strikes they are going to put the ball in play.

“I think my defense did a great job today with backing me up. Numerous fly balls and ground balls that my defenders made great plays on, so props to them. I couldn’t do any of this without them.”

No. 9 hitter Max Miller, who hit his first career bomb on Saturday, had a one-out single in the second and moved up a base via an error. Leadoff hitter Aydan Manning then made it 3-0 with his RBI knock to right.

St. Clairsville, which will carry a 20-10 record into the state tournament opener versus Wayne County Post 68 set for a 7:30 p.m. first pitch Friday at Beavers Field in Lancaster, tacked on an insurance run in the fifth.

After Castro’s leadoff single to center and a stolen base, Hoffman capped his three-hit day with an RBI two-bagger to center.

“Brody Saunders. Brody Saunders. That’s all I can say. He just had one of the best outings that I’ve ever seen a kid have for his age,” said Muklewicz, who has been with Post 159 for 13 years with 11 as the head coach. “That’s a mammoth, mammoth effort. He controlled the strike zone the whole time. He had the hitters off-balance. I mean he was challenging them and they knew it was coming sometimes, but they just couldn’t get to it.

“I mean you put up that many zeroes against a team like that, that is truly an outstanding effort on his part. We played great defense. Yesterday we had some errors in the field and we told them to clean that up. We tried to limit that. That is a great, great team on the other side. I mean the Engles and the rest of the coaching staff do an absolute outstanding job. We’ve had some really good battles over the years. We know what each other brings and we go to war.”

Saunders’ free pass to Frye proved to be the last base runner for Beverly-Lowell, which finished 26-14. The righty retired the final seven batters he faced, which included receiving a running grab from third baseman Peyton Blue to retire Bradford for the first out of the sixth.

“A lot of support back home and we have a variety of schools here,” added Muklewicz, who got two hits apiece from Castro, Saunders and Blue.

“The thing with this district, there are not seven other teams better than these two right here, which is a shame that only one gets to go because we both deserve to be there. We say it every year.”

Beverly-Lowell is expected to return the vast majority of its roster next summer. Post 389/750 no longer will have the services of Nate Silvus, Shawn Miller and Clay Greuey.

“Basically, everybody else I got for two more years,” Engle added. “We have a chance to be really good next year and then obviously the following year we should be pretty solid. We’ll see. They were the better team today. We played them five times and they got us 3-2. That’s where our programs are at. We’re butting heads with one another. I wouldn’t expect it to be any other way.

“We have the utmost respect for them and the community and my understanding as of right now the district tournament is in St. Clairsville next year, so we’ll have to try and turn the tables and go into foreign territory and get it done. We’re going to reup again. That’s what everybody asks me, if I’m coming back. Well, health, nobody can say anything about that, but I plan on being here. I think we’re going to have some fun with this group and we’ll be back.”