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Area One winner-take-all title game rescheduled for today

UNDER PRESSURE — Weirton Post 10’s Mike Mills pitches against Wheeling Post 1 during the Area One Tournament on Friday. Weirton won 5-3 to force a winner-take-all title game at 5 p.m. today. (Photo by Cody Tomer)

BETHANY — Weirton Post 10 manager Jason Swartzmiller and his squad put on a clinic of what it meant to play smart, situational baseball in the Area One Tournament on Friday, at Bethany.

The skipper called for a hit-and-run in two different innings and a safety squeeze bunt and his team executed them to perfection, as Weirton upended Wheeling Post 1, 5-3, to keep its season alive.

Originally scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, the winner-take-all championship will take place at 5 p.m. today due to heavy rain.

“We have a lot of guys that I feel can hit-and-run,” Swartzmiller said. “It is hard enough as it is to beat Wheeling. They are a very good team and honestly, what do we have to lose? They are the two-time defending state champions so we just kept going at them and giving it all we had.”

Along with Weirton’s clutch hitting at the plate, Mike Mills did his part on the hill as he tossed seven-plus innings, fanning six and walking five to earn the win.

“I had most of my stuff working,” Mills said. “My junk was working pretty good and my fastball didn’t have the best velocity but I worked through that and it started to come along as the game went on.”

In the eighth inning, Mills reached the pitch count limit and was pulled from the game with just one out, the bases loaded and Post 10 leading 5-2. However, relief pitcher Jake Rosnick was not shaken, as he recorded a strikeout and induced a groundball to end the frame, allowing just one run to score on a wild pitch.

“We just couldn’t get that clutch hit,” Wheeling manager Mark Delbrugge said. “They were throwing strikes and really did a good job. Mills pitched an outstanding game. He kept us off balance the whole game and he hit the ball, too.”

Throughout the first four frames, the game was back-and-forth as Wheeling secured a 1-0 lead in the first on a RBI knock from Chad Harper.

Then, in the top of the third, a wild pitch allowed Ty Logston to race home from third to knot the contest at 1-1. Wheeling answered in the bottom of the stanza as Jacob Shia led off with a single and scored when Jarrett Delbrugge hit into a fielder’s choice.

In the fourth, Weirton’s Justin Pennybacker reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to third on a Chayce Lemley single, bringing Logston to the dish and Swartzmiller knew exactly what to do. He called for a safety squeeze bunt and his lead-off hitter laid it down perfectly to bring home the tying run.

Post 10 struck again in the fifth but this time it would not look back. Rosnick reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning and Mills stung a line drive to left field to plate his teammate. Then, Weirton pulled off a well-executed hit-and-run to move Mills to third as Chris Turner found a hole in the infield when the shortstop moved to cover second. Pennybacker drove Mills home on a sacrifice fly to extend the Weirton lead to 4-2.

It was deja vu in the seventh as Rosnick, again, reached on a throwing error and Mills drilled a RBI single to left-center to give Post 10 a 5-2 cushion. Turner delivered another perfectly placed hit-and-run but relief pitcher Ben Taylor forced a groundout and back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.

Jarrett Delbrugge gave Wheeling one more run in the eighth by scoring on a wild pitch but Rosnick avoided any real damage to pick up the save.

Logston, Mills and Turner all recorded two hits for Weirton and for Mills, it has been a memorable week of dominating on the mound and preparing for the OVAC All-Star Game.

“It has been a lot of fun,” Mills said. “I pitched against a lot of my OVAC All-Star teammates (Friday), so it was fun getting to play against them and even joking around during the game with them. It has been a fun week.”

One of his all-star teammates led all Wheeling hitters at the plate as Isaac Rine garnered two hits.

Wheeling starting pitcher, Jub Delbrugge kept his squad in the game by throwing six frames with a pair of strikeouts and a walk.

“Jub wasn’t in total command but we made some physical errors behind him and that cost us runs,” Mark Delbrugge said. “They all led to runs but I thought Jub was effective enough to keep us in the game. They outplayed us in every facet of the game (Friday).

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