OV Mountaineers get bats rolling against Post 34
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WEIRTON -- Ron Green feels like his Ohio Valley Mountaineers are poised for a good summer.
If Friday was any indication, he might be right.
The OV Mountaineers 19U team, a summer program made up of players from several OVAC schools, scored in every inning and plated 10 in the fourth to roll to a 23-1 victory over Wellsburg Post 34 in five innings at Bowman Field.
"We've got a team that really hits the ball," Green said. "We've got a lot of speed … we've had these guys in this age group for six or seven years now. Sometimes I feel like we get overlooked, with a performance like this against a legion team I don't think we'll be overlooked any longer.
"Our goal is keep getting better, the Beast of the East is what we want to do. By then we will have guys with a lot of reps and hope to have a good showing."
Indian Creek's Jack Amis had a double, triple and four RBIs and Stan Amis added an RBI to highlight the local contribution for OVM.
Bellaire's Kaiden Banal had six RBIs and three hits, Potomac State College's Ryan Conrad had a pair of RBIs and former Martins Ferry hurler Joe Green needed just 55 pitches to toss a comple game.
"These guys just love playing baseball," coach Green said. "They get along great and have fun together. Our biggest thing is just to enjoy baseball and have fun, get reps and try to win along the way."
The victory improves the OV Mountaineers to 3-0 on the young season.
In the other dugout, things weren't as joyful.
Wellsburg (2-3) committed six errors and those miscues resulted in Post 34 giving up more unearned runs (12) than earned runs (11).
"Today was definitely not our day," Post 34 coach Micah Knisley said. "We have a bunch of kids on vacation right now and had a bunch of kids playing out of postition because of that and made a bunch of fundemental errors. The wheels fells off early."
Brooke product Gavin Moore struck out two in 2 2/3 innings after getting the start, but issued six walks before three Post 34 releivers combined to go the rest of the way with the errors adding up.
Aiden Latham had an RBI single for Post 34 in the bottom of the third to make it 10-1, but that ended up being the lone run for Wellsburg.
The Mountaineers plated four runs in the first, added one in the second, tacked on five in the third to double the lead before the 10-run fourth and three in the fifth really blew things open.
"You cant get down and count on being able to come back every time," Knisley said, referencing his team's eight-run comeback earlier in the week.
Both teams are back in action Tuesday.
OVM take on Moundsville Post 3 at John Marshall High School, while Post 34 travels to Wheeling Post 1.