Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Brody Saunders rocks and fires to the plate Wednesday against Union Local on the Unified Bank Field at the Junior Sports Complex. The righthander struck out 11, walked one and scattered three singles in six-plus innings. The Red Devils won, 7-1.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Whenever Brody Saunders toes the rubber, St. Clairsville has a good chance at winning. Wednesday was one of those days.

The Red Devils senior and Ashland University recruit struck out 11, scattered three singles and walked a batter in six-plus innings as St. Clairsville (2-1) defeated visiting Union Local, 7-1, on the chill-filled Unified Bank Field at the Junior Sports Complex.

“I think we have several guys that fit in that category, and Brody is definitely one of them,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva said. “He was spot-on again today. That is two quality starts for him.”

Saunders was in total control from the start. He fanned five of the first eight Jets he faced, including the side in order in the second. Five of his strikeouts were of the looking variety.

“We came out a little flat today after playing a really good game on Monday,” Union Local head coach Jim Hess said. “I still thought we barrelled the ball up pretty good. We hit a lot of solid balls at them, but we can’t take strike threes on the corners, especially against a good pitcher like Saunders.”

Saunders left with two outs in the seventh as his pitch count reached 105, of which 64 were strikes. He jumped ahead of 20 of the 25 Union Local batters he faced with a first-pitch strike.

“When Brody is in a zone and has command of all of his pitches, he’s a bulldog,” Sliva said. “He showed that again today.”

St. Clairsville took advantage of some wildness by losing pitcher Karson Gregatis in a four-run third. Jaxon Starks, the No. 9 hitter, started the uprising with a single up the middle. He promptly stole second and would score on Roby Hanna’s one-out single. A wild pitch moved Hanna to second and Saunders walked. Mikey Balgo was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Colten Florence picked up an RBI with an ensuing walk, making it 2-0. Niko Jacob had a key two-out seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield for a 4-0 bulge.

Three Union Local errors in the fourth cost it two runs as the margin increased to 6-0. Hanna had another RBI single in the frame.

“We bobbled a couple of balls and they made us pay for that. Good teams do that,” Hess added. “That’s what we’ve been doing early in the season, but tonight just wasn’t our night.”

“We had some quality at-bats and we hustled a little bit out of the box,” Sliva recalled.

Florence walked with the bases juiced again in the sixth for the final Red Devils run.

Union Local avoided being blanked when it pushed across a run in the seventh against reliever Ryan Ivey. Bill Schmuacher had the RBI on an infield single.

Gregatis struck out four and walked two.

“I thought Karson pitched well,” Hess noted. “He pitched out of a jam in the first but we didn’t help him out in the field.”

Hanna and Starks each had two singles.

St. Clairsville travels to Barnesville today for a 5 p.m. game.