Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville catcher Landon Stack waits on Martins Ferry’s Eli Smith at the plate in the top of the sixth inning Thursday at Memorial Park. Smith tried to score from third on a fly out to right but was thrown out by Rowan Mellott. The Purple Riders won a slugfest, 11-9.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Martins Ferry and St. Clairsville concluded their home-and-home regular season Thursday, but the contest was a 180-degree turnaround from Monday.

The visiting Purple Riders (2-1) scored four times in the second and six times in the fourth to hold off the Red Devils, 11-9, on the refurbished Memorial Park turf-infield-only diamond. The game took 2-hours, 23-minutes, but seemed a whole lot longer to Martins Ferry veteran head coach Anthony Reasbeck.

“I was 40 years old when I got here today and now I feel like 50, I’ve been here so long,” Reasbeck said of the marathon. “I told these guys in the looker room before we came out here today that they were coming to a hornets nest, it’s going to be a war and they punched us in the mouth right from the start.

“My guys responded. They are growing up quickly,” he added. “I’ve been screaming at them forever to grow up … it’s been the same kids for two or three years now. We are 2-1 now, but it could go south at any moment. I watched it go south last year, but it’s baseball.

“I told the kids that I really didn’t care if we won or lost the game today, I really did though, it was just fun competing as a team,” he continued. “We competed and that’s what I’m the happiest with.”

In the first meeting won by St. Clairsville (1-2) by a 6-2 count, the teams combined for eight runs and 11 hits. In addition to the 21 combined runs scored on Thursday – six by each team in the fourth frame – they both collected 10 hits.

“We’ve been struggling at our practices and it’s carried over to the games,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva said. “We’ve been struggling with a lot of small things and we have a lot of learning to do. There’s a lot of things along the process that we have to do, and we feel if we do it that way, we’ll be alright, but we’re struggling right now with the steps to the process.”

Luca Shane led the Martins Ferry offensive attack with a pair of singles and a double that produced three runs. Silas Simpson had a clutch two-run, pinch-hit single and five other Purple Riders drove in a run, including Colby Kropka who singled and doubled. Eli Smith also singled twice and plated a run.

“Luca had a couple of big hits today,” Reasbeck recalled. “We are hitting the ball really well as a team.”

Matheson King knocked in a trio of runs for the Red Devils with a double and triple. Niko Jacob had a pair of run-scoring singles, while Caiden Bailey doubled in a pair. Jaxon Starks and Roby Hanna each singled and doubled, with Hanna driving in a run.

Smith relieved freshman Ford Hughes in the fourth after the freshman struck out three and walked two in his first varsity start.

“First start as a freshman at St. Clairsville. He did really well,” Reasbeck said of Hughes. “Then the big horse (Smith) came in and did what we expected him to. I’m glad he is wearing purple.”

Smith earned the win with four strikeouts and three walks in his three-plus innings of work.

Sliva, despite the loss, was pleased with how his team responded after Martins Ferry scored six times in the top of the fourth to take a 10-2 lead.

“Our kids don’t quit. They battled back and we strung some hits together,” he said. ‘We’ve got to tighten up some things to get to where we want to be so that we’re not playing from behind.”

Both teams return to the diamond today as Martins Ferry visits John Blacker Field in Neffs to face rival Bellaire, while St. Clairsville heads west to Barnesville.

Martins Ferry 11, St. Clairsville 9

M. Ferry 040 601 0 – 11 10 1

St. C. 200 601 0 – 9 10 2

MF- Hughes (3K, 2BB), Smith wp (4), (4K, 3BB) and Smith, Patterson (4); H. Shutler S, rbi; Smith 2S, rbi; Shane 2S, D, 3rbi; Kropka S, D, rbi; DeArdo S, rbi; Goff rbi; Simpson S, 2rbi

StC-C. Florence lp (4K, 5BB), Kosek (4), (1K, 0BB), Stack (7), (1K, 0BB) and Stack, Shunk (7); Bailey D, 2rbi; Starks S, D; Hanna S, D, rbi; Jacob 2S, 2rbi; King D, T, 3rbi