T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY MARTINS FERRY’S Alex Reese dives back into third base as St. Clairsville third baseman Marcus Bush applies a tag during their game Thursday afternoon at Memorial Park. Reese was called safe on the play. The Red Devils picked up a 14-3 win in five innings against the Purple Riders.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville didn’t have any opportunities to hit the ball Thursday afternoon at Memorial Park.

When the Red Devils did, however, they made Martins Ferry pay for the wildness of its staff, which saw two pitchers combine for 14 free passes, including eight hit batsmen.

Couple the lack of command and St. Clairsville capitalizing on chances when it did receive a strike and it equaled a 14-3 victory in five innings.

“We made the routine plays and when we got some guys on base, we were able to get a couple of key hits,” St. C. head coach Tom Sliva said after watching his team improve to 7-0. “When you get free passes like we did, you need to get a key hit behind to really take advantage and we were able to do that.”

The Red Devils wasted no time in jumping on the Purple Riders. Despite having just one hit — a two-run single by junior Marcus Bush — the Red Devils owned a 5-0 lead after one.

Martins Ferry opened the game by plunking Brody Saunders and Braylen Blomquist and then walked Mason Myers.

After Bush’s hit, Hunter Hoffman walked, Zach Vickers drew a walk to drive in a run and Max Fogle was hit by a pitch to force in another run.

Noah Turley drove in Hoffman with a sacrifice fly.

It got no better from there for the Riders, who drop to 2-4 on the season.

The Riders pushed across two runs in the second, but the Devils answered as Hoffman had a RBI groundout and Fogle produced a run with a sacrifice fly as Martins Ferry had gone to its bullpen.

St. Clairsville blew the game open in the fourth, scoring seven more runs, including six with two outs. Hoffman doubled to the wall in center to drive in three runs. Turley had a RBI double, while Saunders drove in a pair with a double and Blomquist singled home a run.

“We talk about every guy having a job to do and hopefully they can go up there (to the plate) and do it,” Sliva said. “We’ll keep working at it and hopefully continue to get better every day.”

On the other side, Martins Ferry head coach Anthony Reasbeck continues to just search for answers on the mound.

“I understand I am not the smartest coach in America, but we’ve had 25 walks or hit batsmen in the last two games, so if anyone has any suggestions for that, I would love to hear them,” Reasbeck said. “We hit eight guys. Do I need to say anything else? We could have been playing the St. Clairsville mustang team and we probably would have lost because we hit eight guys.”

The Purple Riders pitching wasn’t the only thing that found a tough going.

Vickers, who didn’t have his best stuff on the mound, got the complete-game win. He walked five and plunked two, but he only allowed one hit, so Ferry was never able to make him pay for his command issues.

“We’re just playing bad baseball and it’s not fun to be around or watch,” Reasbeck continued. “We’re a bad product and we better figure it out by tournament time.”

St. Clairsville is off today before heading to Toronto to take on Alliance Marlington Saturday afternoon. Martins Ferry will look to stop the bleeding today at home against Buckeye Local.