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Dawson’s two-homer game not enough for Weirton Post 10

PITCHING — Cody Tate and the Weirton Post 10 Legion baseball club fell to the Triple Crown Royals on Saturday. (Photo by Joe Catullo)

WEIRTON — Going up against a high-scoring team is never easy, but the Weirton Post 10 Legion baseball team kept the Triple Crown Royals of Columbus in check for all but one inning in a 13-4 loss Saturday in the Beast of the East tournament at Edwin J. Bowman Field.

Jason Swartzmiller’s club, which is 1-4 in the tournament, surrendered eight runs to the Royals in the third inning after going up 2-0 in the second. The two teams battled on even terms the rest of the game thanks to two home runs by Joey Dawson.

The Brooke High product belted a round tripper with a mate aboard in the fourth inning and a solo shot in the seventh. It was Dawson’s first homers of the summer.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Joey,” Post 10 manager Jason Swartzmiller said. “He’s one of the guys that shows up for us and works tremendously hard. He’s one of the guys that has been here since I started coaching, and I’ve seen him progress with consistent improvements from him. He’s one of our better hitters, and I couldn’t be more proud of him for his hard work.

“I was not really displeased with the way we played today. (Friday), we did not play well at all, but we did today. We gave up some walks and had only two errors. You take that eight-run inning away, and we’re in the ball game against one of the better teams in the tournament.”

Trailing 1-0, Post 10 forged into the lead in the second inning when Dawson drew a leadoff walk and raced around the bases to score from first on a ringing double off the right-center field fence by Nick Leonard, who later scored from first on a throwing error that had the ball going out of play.

Bryan Courts was the Post 10 starter and ran into trouble in the top of the third inning when the Royals sent 11 batters to the plate (each team is permitted to use two extra batters if they choose). The Royals notched five hits in the inning. Courts walked two, hit two batters and there was a costly Post 10 error.

Courts worked his way out of the inning and gave up another run in the fourth inning and three more in the sixth.

Post 10 retaliated with two runs in the bottom of the fourth on the first of Dawson’s home runs and plated their fifth run with his second long ball in the bottom of the seventh.

“This is our fourth tournament this summer,” said Triple Crown Royal coach Todd Fallon, whose cub now is 29-4. “We made it to the finals twice in those tournaments, the semifinals another time.”

Fallon said he will have to wait and see if his team makes into the Beast of the East championship round today.

“A lot of our kids are high school seniors that are going on to play college baseball,” he said. “We are a travel team that will go to six tournaments. Four of them are in Columbus, we have this one and in what is billed as the national championships in Indianapolis.”

Two Royals pitchers limited Post 10 to four hits, two of them by Dawson. Justin Pennybacker and Leonard got the other two.

Post 10 was to play Monroeville in its second Saturday game, but the team from Pittsburgh dropped out, so Swartzmiller’s crew was going to play the Steel City Maulers a second time in the Beast of the East finale at Bowman Field. Swartzmiller said Post 10 would play a Beast consolation game Sunday and return to regularly scheduled games next week, the first of which will be at Brilliant Post 573 on Wednesday.

Triple Crown Royals 13, Weirton 5

Royals 1-0-8 1-0-3 0 — 13-18-3

Weirton 0-2-0 2-0-0 1 — 5-4-2

ROYALS: Davis (wp, 5IP, 6K, 2BB, 4ER), Zendarsky (2IP, 1ER, 0K, 0BB) and Fallon.

POST 10: Courst (lp, 6IP, 2K, 5BB), Tate (1IP, 1K, 1BB) and Beatty.

TWO OR MORE HITS: Royals (Detwiler 2, Ketron 4, Stoner 2, Couchman 2, Rickert 3, Garrett 2); Post 10 (Dawson 2). DOUBLES: Royals 7 (Detwiler, Fallon, Ketron 2, Williams, Rickert, Lewis); Post 10 none. TRIPLES: none. HOME RUNS: Royals: none; Weirton 2 (Dawson 2). RBIs: Royals (Ketron 4, Kendarsky 3, Williams, Stoner); Post 10 (Dawson 3, Courts).

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