Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry first baseman Alex Reese (5) chases St. Clairsville’s Colten Florence towards second during a rundown Wednesday in the fourth inning on the Unified Bank Field at the Jr. Sports Complex in St. Clairsville. Reese eventually tagged Florence to end the inning. The Purple Riders won, 7-2.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Martins Ferry head baseball coach Anthony Reasbeck has a lot of respect for St. Clairsville’s program. That’s why whenever the Purple Riders can earn a victory against their Buckeye 8 rival, it means a little more.

After dropping a 5-0 decision in the mutual season-opener on Tuesday high atop the Purple City, the two rivals met again 24 hours later with the Purple Riders coming out on top, 7-2, in the first game played on the artificial surface at Unified Bank Field at the Jr. Sports Complex.

“That was our plan. It really was,” Reasbeck said. “The (Brody) Saunders kid is the real deal and we knew it would be tough against him. We didn’t play bad, we just didn’t get the hits when we needed to.

“St. Clairsville is one of the premier programs around the Ohio Valley and the state. I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys, so when you beat them, you’ve really done something good,” Reasbeck added. “This is a rivalry game for us. It meant something today.

“Today was a total team effort,” he praised. “All the way up-and-down the lineup.”

Wednesday was a different story as they built a 5-0 lead behind the gutsy pitching of sophomore Hunter Shutler. The righty struck out five, walked just one and spaced out half-a-dozen hits in a route-going performance.

“We know what Hunter is capable of,” Reasbeck added. “We’ve had a lot of good pitchers at Martins Ferry. He has a chance to be right up there with them.”

Shutler threw 93 pitches, of which 66 were strikes. He got ahead of the Red Devil batters by throwing a first-pitch strike to 21 of the 30 he faced.

“Mainly my off-speed pitches were the most effective,” Shutler advised. “This win will really boost our confidence.”

Veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva praised Shutler’s effort.

“He pitched a really good game today. They also played good defense behind him and made us pay for our mistakes,” he said.

Taking Advantage Of Opportunities

The Purple Riders (1-1) were opportunistic, especially at the plate where they took advantage of some wildness of the two St. Clairsville pitchers that toed the rubber. Seven Martins Ferry hitters drew base-on-balls and another five were plunked with pitches. Three of the five that were hit by a pitch scored.

“Today wasn’t our best showing. We did some good things but there are still things we have to work on,” Sliva said. “It’s hard to win when you put that many guys on base. We’ll work at it. Like I just told them, ‘it’s only the second game of the season.'”

Martins Ferry scored twice in the second when St. Clairsville uncharacteristically made a trio of errors.

Only Mistake

One pitch that Shutler would probably like back was the first pitch to Colten Florence with a runner on and one out in the bottom of the sixth. The Red Devils sophomore sent the offering well over the fence in center to account for all St. Clairsville’s runs.

Defensive Gems

St. Clairsville flashed the leather once and used a strong throw to halt a Martins Ferry scoring chance.

In the top of the first, the Purple Riders had runners on first and second with one out. Kolson Ludolph bounced to Niko Jacob at third who stepped on the bag and threw across the diamond to Mikey Balgo at first for the inning-ending double play.

In the third, with the Purple Riders ahead 2-0, Ryan Ivey unleashed a rocket from left to cut down Christian Shutler at the plate, although it appeared as Shutler had beaten the tag.

Martins Ferry first baseman Alex Reese also showed his athletic ability. The Youngstown State University football recruit and all-state basketball player, knocked down a shot by Saunders, picked the ball up and just beat the Ashland University recruit to bag for the first out of the sixth. The play turned out to be even bigger when Florence went deep two batters later.

Scoring Late

The Purple Riders led 5-0 prior to the aforementioned home run but got those runs back in the top of the seventh. The first run crossed when freshman Clayton Snider raced home on the back-end of a double steal. Ayden Ludolph was on first and got caught in a rundown before Snider alertly broke for home. The throw was off target. Hunter Shutler was hit with a pitch and Eli Smith’s fly ball to center was deep enough to move Ludolph to third. The University of Rio Grande football recruit would score on a base hit by younger brother, Kolson.