RIDGE, Md. — After playing for nearly two-and-a-half months, Wheeling Post 1’s season came down to one bad inning.

Thursday morning during an elimination game at the Mid-Atlantic Region 2 American Legion Baseball Tournament, Wheeling yielded five runs on one hit to Bristol, Pa., Post 382 in the bottom of the third inning in dropping a 6-3 verdict at Joe Cannon Stadium.

Already down 1-0, back-to-back walks and an error loaded the bases. An infield single that ricocheted off of Post 1 starter Reese Davis made it 2-0. A walk and hit batter quickly upped the count to 4-0 and ended the day for Davis. Henry Anderson came on and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches as the margin grew to 5-0. With one out, Chance Wideman laid down a suicide-squeeze bunt to knock in the finally tally.

“Early in the season we thought our pitchers were competing, but we thought that our walks would eventually come back to haunt us,” Wheeling Post 1 manager Jon-Michael Brunner said in a telephone interview. “Our offense bailed us out a lot with double-digit hits and double-digit runs.

“The last three weeks our pitchers got ahead (in counts) and we had two shutouts in the (W.Va.) state tournament,” Brunner continued. “The last couple of days we went back to our old selves and the bats cooled off. We can’t dig ourselves in holes and expect our offense to score 10 runs every game.

“At the end of the day, we told the kids they are still W.Va. State Champions and nobody can ever take that away from them.”

Wheeling (31-9) Anderson singled in Zade Billings to break up the shutout in the fourth. Billings’ two-run blast to deep left in the sixth cut the deficit in half, 6-3, but Post 1 could get any closer.

Billings doubled in addition to his homer. He scored two of the three runs. His circuit shot drove in Jaxon Murray who had singled and went to third on an error.

Braxton Billick added two singles as Post 1 outhit Post 382 by an 8-5 count.