WELLSBURG - As the dark clouds began rolling in and the thunder roared, the Wellsburg Post 34 offense began raining down hits on Richmond Post 740 just before the American Legion game at Brooke High School was called in the fifth inning.
When the frame started, Richmond held a 4-1 lead and had held Post 34 to just one hit. By the time the inning was over, Wellsburg put together a nine-run rally to take a 10-4 lead that would eventually be made final.
"We put it together late," Wellsburg head coach Kirk Furioli said. "It was a short game because of the rain. We did have a good fifth inning to make it an official game."
Wellsburg started the inning with Jared Magon and Paul DiPasquale hitting two consecutive singles. That was followed by three consecutive walks drawn by Ryan Trimmer, Chris Perna and Zak Shaffer.
Richmond head coach Sam Davis chose to go to his bullpen in order to relieve starter Mark Smyth.
Reliever Jett Bernhart could not stop the momentum, however. Hits by David Alward, Shane Paesano and Kyle Wales gave Wellsburg the big cushion before the rain drops ended matters.
"Mark pitched great and, of course, he is only 15 years old," Davis said. "He was sailing right along and then faced a little adversity where he had some trouble throwing strikes. One thing led to another and Wellsburg had a heck of an inning. You have to give them credit.
"We made five errors in that one inning. If you walk three or four guys and have five errors, you are going to give up a bunch of runs. In that way, baseball is pretty simple. The wheels just came off a little for us and that is baseball. You have to give Wellsburg credit. They took advantage of our mistakes and they did a good job."
Furioli felt as though his team's patience was the key to the big inning.
"We took a couple of pitches and got a couple of guys on base by drawing the two walks. Once you do that, all it takes is a couple of hits here and there and that is how you win ballgames," Furioli said. "There are still a few things that we have to work on. We can't wait until the fifth inning of every game to start getting some hits together. I'm glad we finally did get things going, but I'd like to spread it out a little bit more and have more offensive production throughout."
Alward picked up the win for Post 34, striking out six and walking four.
"Alward pitched a good game for us," Furioli said.
"He was throwing strikes, for the most part. He got a little wild here and there, but he did well for most of the game.
"They hit a couple of good balls that were hits. We couldn't do anything about those. Sam (Davis) has got a good team and I'm sure they will do fine the rest of the season. It is a good win any time you can beat a team like Richmond, because they have a really nice ballclub."
Wellsburg moves to 2-6 on the season, a record which Furioli believes can be deceiving.
"We have played a lot of quality teams so far. Our record may not sound great to the average person, but I'm kind of happy with where our team is right now," Furioli explained.
"It seems that every team we have faced so far has thrown their No. 1 pitcher.
"Our main objective is the Area 1 tournament. So, if we can get all of the rust off before the area tournament, I'll be happy.
"We're trying to have some fun, too. The more the kids get vocal and the more they get into the game, the happier I'll be. Even if we lose, I want our kids to be vocal, I want them to have fun and I want them to learn a little bit, too.
"That's the main reason why we are here and hopefully we can put it together at the end."
Wellsburg will travel to Wintersville in a makeup game set for a 6 p.m. start Friday.
Smyth took the loss for Richmond, striking out three and walking four in 4 innings pitched. Ben Atchinson led the Post 740 offense with two singles.
"I thought their lefty (Alward) threw pretty well," Davis said.
"Actually, we had some pretty good at-bats. We have been hitting the ball better and playing better.
"It was just one bad inning. That is what I told the kids. It isn't life or death out there."
Richmond (5-8) will host Wintersville at 6 p.m. today.
(Newman can be contacted at anewman@heraldstaronline.com)
Wellsburg 10, Richmond 4
Post 740 013 00 - 4 6 6
Post 34 100 09 - 10 6 1
RICHMOND: Smyth LP (4 1/3 IP, 3K, 4BB), Bernhart (OK, 1BB) and Spears; Falasca 2B; Atchinson 2-1B; Starre 2B; Trifonoff 1B; Bernhart 3B.
WELLSBURG: Alward WP (6K, 4BB) and DiPasquale; Alward 2-1B; Wales 2B; Magon 1B; DiPasquale 1B, 2B.
