Wildthings Rally to Down Jefferson County, 5-3
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STEUBENVILLE -- Jefferson County Teramana Post 33 has been hitting the ball better of late.
The problem Thursday, however, was after the second inning, the hits became scattered.
Post 33 jumped out to an early two-run lead, but saw the visiting Wheeling Wildthings score five-straight runs to hand Jefferson County a 5-3 defeat.
"They're a good hitting team," Jefferson County coach Don Morrison said of Wheeling. "I think we're starting to play better."
Post 33 (14-12) scored 10 runs a night earlier in an 11-10 loss at St. Clairsville and hit the ball well last week in the Beast of the East.
Jefferson County did have eight hits Thursday, two of which were triples, but had a runner thrown out stealing, another runner cut down at the plate and left men stranded in multiple innings.
"We had a lot of hits (Wednesday) and a couple well-hit balls (Thursday), we just didn't group them together," Morrison said. "We've got to get our pitching and defense together and I think we'll be alright.
"We're happy with the way the guys have been hitting."
Meanwhile, the Wildthings (20-5) got things going in the fourth and fifth, getting back within one in the top of the fourth then taking the lead for good an inning later.
"It just took us a little bit to time their pitcher up," Wheeling coach Mike Bittinger said. "Once we got the timing we started attacking his fastball and got a couple hits. We found some gaps and got the runners going."
Michael Bittinger had a two-run triple and Adam Och an RBI single in the decisive fifth inning outburst. Brennan Sobutta's RBI single after an Och leadoff double got Wheeling on the board in the fourth.
Jefferson County took the early lead with a Hakim Edwards RBI triple in the bottom the second, followed by a Kaden Jurosko sac fly for an RBI to make it 2-0.
After the Wildthings went wild in the fifth, Post 33 got a run in the bottom of the seventh on another Jurosko sac fly, but could not get anyone else across.
Wheeling, also coming off the Beast of the East and with another tournament ahead this weekend, used five different pitchers.
Sobutta went the first three innings, then Gian Deganova, Och (who got the win), Dillon Wright (hold) and Bittinger (save) each went an inning.
"We stayed a little light on the pitching, we wanted to get them in and out," coach Bittinger said. "We have another tournament coming up so we wanted to make sure everyone is rested up. We wanted all of our pitchers to stay low in the pitch counts after grind of the Beast so we have arms for Saturday.
"They all did a good job of coming in and throwing strikes."
Jefferson County's Aiden Fernandez went the distance, taking the loss.
The Wildthings are playing in a tournament in Bridgeport, W.Va. beginning Saturday, while Post 33 is headed to a tournament in Beaver Falls, Pa.
"We're going to Joe Namath's old stomping grounds," Morrison said. "We'll see some good pitching and hopefully we can keep hitting."