RIDGE, Md. — So close, but yet so far.

Wheeling Post 1 was within three outs of advancing in the first round of the Mid-Atlantic American Legion Region 2 Baseball Tournament Wednesday morning, but Cherry Hill, N.J., rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-4 victory at Joe Cannon Stadium.

The tough-to-swallow loss sends Wheeling (31-8) into the loser’s bracket, with a win-or-go-home game set for Thursday at 9:30 a.m. against the loser of the Pennsylvania runner up, Bristol, and Maryland state champion, Cecil County.

“We just need to flush that one and move on,” Post 1 manager Jon-Michael Brunner said via telephone. “Now we’ve got to go out and try to win one game at a time. We, as coaches, have all the confidence in these kids.”

Wheeling, the designated visitors, led 4-3 entering the home half of the seventh before Cherry Hill played some ‘small ball.’ A walk, hit batter, sacrifice bunt, fielder’s choice and sacrifice fly made a winner out of the New Jersey state champions (21-1).

Post 372 took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Noah Harvey sent an 0-1 offering from Seth Cover over the wall in left. It was one of only three hits for the New Jersey squad.

“I thought we battled. They (Cherry Hill) only hit the ball hard once, that being the three-run homer,” Brunner added. “We hit a lot of balls right at them.

“In a tournament like this, you’ve got to do everything right against good teams, and there were a couple of times where we didn’t do that,” Brunner added.

Post 1 scored all of its runs in the top of the fifth with two out. Braxton Billick, the No. 9 hitter, singled and Chris Upton reached on an error. Seth Cover was hit with a pitch to load the bases before Jaxon Murray walked to make it 3-1. Zade Billings was then hit by another Zach Smith pitch, to force in Upton. Rocco Digiandomenico roped an 0-1 pitch to left to chase home Cover and Murray for a 4-3 advantage.

Wheeling was in serious trouble in the bottom of the inning when Post 372 staged its own two-out threat. However, reliever Jake Brown escaped any harm when third baseman Henry Anderson dove to his right to snare a line drive headed for extra bases.

Andrew Bechtel drew a leadoff walk from Brown to start the game-winning rally. Chris Ahrens was then plunked to end Brown’s day on the hill. With Anderson on the mound, Harvey bunted both runners up 90 feet, and Jake Barleta’s grounder to short was thrown home late as Bechtel slid in safely. Brett Chiesa lifted the first pitch he saw to center, but the throw was off the mark as Ahrens ignited a wild celebration when he touched home.

The walk-off was the second straight for Cherry Hill, which won its state tournament the same way.

Digiandomenico and Billick each had two of Wheeling’s six singles.