Contributed LEGION BALL IS BACK — Steubenville Post 33 had its first home game Friday after a two-year hiatus. Post Commander Joe Rockey and Vice President Terry Channel were on hand for the game.

STEUBENVILLE — Post 33 baseball is back.

After a two-year hiatus, Steubenville American Legion Post 33’s history-rich summer baseball program returned to the legion baseball ranks on Friday evening for its first season since 2023.

“It’s a great feeling to be back in action,” new Post 33 head coach Lee Bainbridge said. “It’s great to have the city behind us and be back on the field.”

Post 33 leadership is happy to have the program back.

“It’s pretty great to have our team again,” Post 33 Post Commander Joe Rockey said. “We want to our kids to stay local and be able to play and I think sponsoring legion ball is the right direction to do that. We’re playing all local teams. There’s a lot of history with Post 33 and baseball, there’s a lineage here and tradition.

“A lot of the players’ dads and uncles played for Post 33. You walk around downtown and hear people talking about legion ball being back, it’s great for the community.”

The last time Post 33 fielded a team it was went by the name Jefferson County Post 33 and played its games at Edison. Now they’re back to the traditional Steubenville name, wearing red and black uniforms and playing on Fred Heatherington Field at the Crimson Complex.

The legion post did stay involved in summer ball, sponsoring Big Red’s summer baseball and softball programs. Now, they’re back on the field as a full-fledged legion team again.

“It’s great to have our team be able to play here,” Rockey said. “It’s great to have summer baseball back in Steubenville and we’re doing our best to support it. We don’t have any sponsors, we’re supporting it ourselves and very excited.”

Post 33 hosted Wheeling Post 1 on Friday evening in their first home game of the summer, falling to the perennial powerhouse.

The Post 33 line up consisted of mostly underclassmen from Big Red and Catholic Central, setting them up for a bright future as the program looks to build back up.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys and we’re working toward the future,” Bainbridge said.

“It’s a young team and they’re set up well to come back and be better and year after year,” Rockey said.

Wheeling Post 1 coach Scott Castilow was happy to see Post 33 back on the field and on the schedule again.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I played college ball with Anthony Pierro and we had a nice, friendly rivalry a few years ago when he was the coach and I always enjoyed going against them, even going back to my playing days. There’s a lot of good history between our programs, a lot of great battles. It was disappotiang the last couple years when they didn’t have a team.

“It’s great to see a legion team come back in the area. I would like to see legion ball make a comeback and it’s good to see another local legion team as opposed to more travel ball or kids leaving the area to play. There’s a lot of pride in legion ball, it’s about a team and having your towns behind you.

“We’re happy to have them back. Hopefully it’s a good sign for legion ball in the area.”