Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Brody Saunders delivers a pitch plateward Tuesday night against Wheeling Park. The senior went the distance to earn the win as the Red Devils rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh with two outs for a 6-3 triumph. Saunders fanned nine and walked a pair.

WHEELING — Trailing Wheeling Park 3-2 with two outs and nobody on in the top of the seventh, things looked bleak for St. Clairsville. However, the old Yogi Berra saying “it ain’t over until it’s over” came into play, much to the dismay of the Patriots.

Ryan Ivey’s bases-clearing double sparked a four-run outburst as the Red Devils (6-1) outlasted the Patriots, 6-3, at chill-filled Patriots Field.

“There were a lot of great things that happened today,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva said. “We battled and battled and Ryan came up with the big hit for us.”

Wheeling Park reliever Coldin Burkhart retired the first two Red Devils in the seventh, both on ground balls to shortstop Nate Simon. However, a double by Roby Hanna, an infield single by winning pitcher Brody Saunders and a hit batter loaded the bases as Patriots head coach elected to bring in Simon to close it out.

However, falling behind 0-2, St. Clairsville junior Colten Florence watched three consecutive pitches sail wide of the strike zone. He then fouled off two in a row before Simon hit him to force in a run and tie the game. Ivey then sent a 2-1 offering down the line in right that cleared the bases.

“He battled,” Sliva said of Florence. “He made it so that another guy got a chance to hit. That was huge.”

Wheeling Park (11-5), which lost for the fourth consecutive game, tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh off Saunders, the Red Devils’ ace.

With one out, Kolten Whitmire singled to right and Jaxon Updegraff coaxed a walk. Saunders, who is headed to Ashland University on a baseball scholarship, got Simon on a fly to center and retired Ryland Robb on a fly to right to seal the deal.

“We had our opportunities. We just didn’t take advantage of them,” Wheeling Park head coach Steve Myers said. Sometimes that’s the way the game goes. Their pitcher pitched a great game.”

With the game deadlocked at 2 in the bottom of the fifth, Robb’s two-out Baltimore chop up the middle drove in Whitmire to put the hosts ahead, 3-2.

The Red Devils, who won their fifth straight, had tied the game at 2 in the top of the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Mikey Balgo. They had taken a 1-0 lead in the first with an unearned tally.

Simon had a sacrifice fly in the third and Paul McGee’s groundout in the fourth scored the Patriots second run.

Saunders went the distance, throwing 126 pitches, with 79 being strikes. He struck out nine, walked two and scattered five singles.

“We kept battling and fighting, but sometimes things just don’t go your way,” Myers said.

Sliva was proud of the way Saunders handled himself on the mound.

“He’s a bulldog,” Sliva noted. “He’s our ace and we’ll stick with him until the end. That’s what we did today. He made some big pitches when he needed to.”

St. Clairsville returned to the Junior Sports Complex today as Bellaire visits. Thursday they travel to Barnesville in a makeup game. Wheeling Park heads to Steubenville today before taking part in the McDonald’s Classic at Bridgeport, W.Va.