DELIVERY — Wellsburg Post 34’s Caleb Billick fires a pitch to a Wheeling Post 1 batter during Monday’s game in Wheeling to start the Area 1 tournament. – Nick Henthorn
WHEELING — Monday evening at the JB Chambers I-470 Sports Complex, it was Wheeling Post 1 vs. Wellsburg Post 34- and Brooke vs. Brooke on the mound.
Both Wheeling’s Henry Anderson and Wellsburg’s Caleb Billick — each of whom will be Bruins seniors this upcoming school year — locked down the opposition before Post 1 emphatically broke the scoreless tie with an eight-run sixth inning, winning their opening game of the American Legion W.Va. Area 1 Tournament 8-0.
Anderson picked up the win with seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and walking two while punching out 10 batters.
“Henry put us on his back there, that was big-time out of him,” Post 1 assistant coach Isaac Rine said. “We wouldn’t have been in the position that we were if it hadn’t been for him, we couldn’t get the offense going early. I can’t say enough about what Henry did today, it was awesome.”
Billick pitched five scoreless innings before Post 1 got to him in the sixth.
“I think Caleb did an amazing job,” Post 34 head coach Micah Knisely said. “I’m not surprised, because I know what he’s capable of. I’m proud that he stuck it out and he pitched well today.”
Billick also got some help from his defense, right fielder Zac O’Mery throwing out a runner at the plate after snagging a fly ball for an inning-ending double play.
Billick induced nine fly outs Monday.
For Post 8, their big sixth inning started with the top of their lineup, leadoff man Alex Taylor drawing a walk to start the frame, and Braxton Billick and Jaxon Murray each following up with singles struck the opposite way into right. Taylor scored to break open the scoring on Murray’s base knock. Zade Billings walked to load the bases, still with nobody out, before Skadra was hit by a pitch to bring in Billick. Preston Cole flew out to right field, a sacrifice which brought home Murray.
Quinn Jamison hustled out an infield hit placed awkwardly between third and short, and Billings came home to bring home another run and bring the score to 4-0.
A flyout had Post 34 one out away from stopping the bleeding, but Post 1 still had plenty in the tank.
Rocco Paolina hummed an RBI single to right field to turn the lineup over and bring Taylor to the plate once again. The impending Ohio Bobcat flared a single to right field, but the ball skipped away from the fielder and all the way to the wall, clearing the bases and putting Taylor on third standing. Now 7-0, Braxton Billick smoked a double to right center and allowed Taylor to trot home. A fly out the next at-bat gave Wellsburg their long-awaited third out.
“I think it was a long time coming,” Rine said of his team’s sixth inning. “All year we’ve been hitting the ball pretty well. We didn’t get a couple bunts down there but with two strikes our two and three hitters slapped the ball hard the other way and kept the inning going which was huge. We preach doing your job, but when you don’t do your job you’ve still got to find a way to make something else happen and they did that.”
Anderson needed three batters to end the game in the top of the seventh, the game ending on a 6-3 double play.
Wellsburg received two hits from leadoff man Raymond DeFranco, who also stole a base. Brayden McFarland and TJ Decapio also tallied hits for Post 34.
“This is the first game we’ve had all of our players at the same time,” Knisely said. “All year we’ve had vacations and work schedules. The team we had today was the team we should’ve had all year. We can hang with Wheeling and Parkersburg, we just could not get anybody at the same place and same time. We’ve got to hit better. They out-hit us in the sixth inning and that’s all that it took.”
Braxton Billick put together a 4-4 day which included two doubles and an RBI for Wheeling. Paolina also had a multi-hit game.
Post 1 will next face Parkersburg in the Area One tournament on Tuesday.
“This is a grind, it’s a long season, but this is the exciting part of the season, when the playoffs start,” Rine said. “Every game matters. Parkersburg’s going to come ready to play tomorrow and we’re excited to get after it.”
Wellsburg will play Moundsville Post 3 Tuesday in an elimination game.