WHEELING – After a long summer, the West Virginia American Legion State Tournament starts Thursday, a double elimination quest to the state title involving eight teams from across the state. Two of the eight teams hail from Area One, where Area Champion Wheeling Post 1 and runner-up Wellsburg Post 34 are hoping to be the last ones standing in Martinsburg.

WHEELING POST 1

Post 1’s State Tournament berth is more of a rebirth, with Wheeling heading back to the tourney after getting there last year as well, going 1-2 in 2023.

This year’s team returns many of the same players, who are eager to improve upon their showing at states last year.

“I think we’re ready,” Post 1 assistant coach Isaac Rine said. “We’re very mature, I like how we’ve been handling tough situations the last couple weeks. We’re an old team, a bunch of guys are returning from last year’s state tournament. Taking that maturity and experience down there is a big plus for us.”

“We’re very excited. We had a couple good days of practice, we did what we normally do all year, work hard in practice, make sure it’s done right and get ready to go.”

Post 1 (24-6) will play Charleston Post 65 (14-21) in the first round.

The game is a rematch of last year, where Post 1 beat Post 65.

“They’re tough,” Rine said. “We played them last year in the tournament and they gave us a good game. They finished as runner-up to South Charleston but they’re just as tough as them. I’m sure they’ll give us everything they have.”

Wheeling features plenty of talent heading into the tournament. Jared Marsh, Jaxon Murray, Preston Cole and Andrew Skadra carry OPS’ over 1.000 into Thursday’s game, while Braxton Billick, Rocca Paolina, Alex Taylor, Zade Billings and Rocco Digiandomenico have all posted OPS’ over .900. On the mound, Luke Doyle, Quinn Jamison, and Ryan Yates have all posted ERA’s under two, while Henry Anderson and Preston Cole have posted sub-three ERA’s.

“We don’t want to go down there and drop the first one, so a lot of the emphasis is on winning game one and moving to game two, basically taking it one day at a time,” Rine said.

WELLSBURG POST 34

Post 34 enters Thursday with plenty of momentum, having upset Parkersburg Post 15 in the Area Tournament to punch their ticket to a stage which they have not been on in a long time.

“Everyone’s got their heads on straight,” Wellsburg head coach Micah Knisely said. “This is the first time, not only Post 34, but the high school- Brooke- this is the furthest that a lot of those teams have gone in a long time. It’s exciting for the players, it’s exciting for the coaches- and the parents. Some of those parents played on the state championship teams back in the 80’s, early 90’s.”

“It’s something good for our community, for baseball in our community. A lot of people are all for Brooke football, which is great, but other sports get left out. This is good for the sport of baseball in Brooke County.”

Post 34 (4-9) will face South Charleston (19-8-1) in the first round.

“I think we can play with the best of them if we play the baseball I know we can play,” Knisely said. “Our biggest problem this year has been our hitting, we either don’t hit the ball or we hit the ball left and right. Our defense is spot-on, our pitching is excellent, we’ve just got to hit the ball.”

That pitching talent includes Hunter Mozingo (4.6 ERA) and Caleb Billick (4.5 ERA), while Mozingo, TJ Decapio, and Brayden McFarland have been their biggest bats.

Those names are at the forefront of a unit which is only now becoming whole.

“After vacations and work schedules, our team finally came together at the Area Tournament and it showed,” Knisely said. “That was the team we should’ve had all year if it wasn’t for schedules, vacations and things like that. To say that we’ve peaked- we just have our whole team together instead of piecing together players playing out-of-position, playing younger players.”

Looking beyond Thursday, Wheeling will either play Bridgeport Post 68 (18-13) or Potomac Valley Post 64 (16-13), while Wellsburg will either play Morgantown Post 2 (28-5) or Berkeley Post 14 (18-10), depending on the outcome of Thursday’s games.