Photo by Kim North Wheeling Post 1’s Jack Selmon receives congratulations after scoring a run against Wellsburg Post 34 in an W.Va. Area One American Legion baseball tournament game Tuesday night on the artificial surface at Patriot Field. Post 1 blanked Post 34 by a 14-0 margin and will face Parkersburg on Wednesday.

WHEELING — Wheeling Post 1 manager Scott Castilow is a stickler for his team doing the little things that could mean the difference between a win and a loss.

Castilow was shaking his head Tuesday night trying to come up with something that the defending state champions need to improve upon as the W.Va. Area One American Legion baseball tournament got under way at Wheeling Park High School’s Patriot Field.

“This is what we anticipated doing. This is what we wanted to do,” Castilow said after a 14-0 mercy-rule drubbing of visiting Wellsburg Post 34 in four-and-a-half innings. “This is the time of the year when nothing else matters. Not that the regular season didn’t matter, but now it is go time. This is when you start to fine tune things.”

Ryland Robb pitched three-plus innings of three-hit ball, striking out four and walking a pair; Post 1 blasted out 13 hits and played flawless defense.

“It’s tough to find something that we need to work on after tonight’s performance,” he stressed. “Usually I try to find one or two things that we can work on, but it was an outstanding job by Ryland. Our hitting was like it has been for the most part all summer. We like to hit and we like to hit it (the ball) hard. Late in the season we’ve had some errors that have hurt us, so to see us play like we did tonight was especially satisfying.”

The Post 1 (24-7-2) defense kept the shutout intact despite Wellsburg (10-15) loading the bases with one out in the fifth. However, reliever Donovan Jones induced a bouncer to newcomer Dom Fato at shortstop who slipped to Jake Brown at second for a forceout. Brown then relayed to Digiandomenico at first to complete the game-ending double play.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in these young guys. As our older guys graduate after this year, the younger kids are going to be expected to grow into those roles,” Castilow continued. “When we get situations where we can get them some playing time, it’s only going to be beneficial for us in the long run.”

Fato was recently promoted from the Post 1 Jr. team, while Brown has served in a backup role at a variety of positions this summer.

Leadoff hitter Chris Upton led the 13-hit barrage with a trio of singles that produced a run. Seth Cover, Digiandomenico and Jack Selmon all singled and doubled, with Digiandomenico knocking in three runs, Selmon two and Cover one. Jaxon Murray added an RBI single and Braxton Billick doubled in another. Brady Ernest and Zade Billings added run-producing base hits.

Wheeling scored twice in the first inning before tacking on five in the second. It sealed the deal with a 7-run third.

The loss went to Ray DeFranco who struck out two and walked three. Wellsburg was eliminated after being shutout 12-0 by Parkersburg Post 15 on Monday.

Wheeling and Parkersburg (25-7) will play a best-of-3 series, starting tonight at 6 p.m. to see who represents Area One in next week’s state tournament at Mylan Park in Morgantown.