STEUBENVILLE - The American Legion District 10 tournament begins Monday and Post 33 coach Mark Stacy and Post 86 coach Steve Sninchak understand what their respective teams must do for a chance to win the week-long affair.
"We just to have better at-bats," Stacy said after Wednesday's 4-2 victory over Toronto at Vaccaro Field. "We've had guys getting into good hitter's counts and swing and bad pitches. We just have to be smarter at the plate. We have to have more focused at the plate.
"We have to avoid the big inning on defense. I think that's the key to our success. The big inning has killed us, but that's baseball. Having a big inning and avoiding a big inning is how you win a lot of games.
"There's been stretches this season where we've done that and stretches where we haven't."
It was just as simple for Sninchak.
"We have to get that one or two hits when we have runners in scoring position," he said. "We need timely hits, that big hit. That's what we're lacking.
"On the whole, it's been like that all year. We've had some timely hits, but not consistently.
"I think we are finally coming together defensively. We've corrected our errors, for the most part, because they haven't come back to haunt us.
"We've had good pitching all year."
Steubenville's Jimmy Panella doubled in the first inning and tripled in the fifth inning. Panella, Brenton Colabella and JoJo Pierro combined for six hits and three RBIs.
Toronto tied the game in the third on a two-run double by Spenser Sninchak that scored Tyler Owens and John Romey.
Post 33 went up for good in the fifth, scoring two runs on an RBI double by Brian Pierro and an RBI single by Colabella.
Steubenville visits Weirton today at 6 p.m. at Bowman Field. Post 33 takes on Post 740 at 5 p.m. Monday at Vaccaro Field in the district tournament.
Toronto hosts Richmond at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Post 86 meets Wayne County at 4 p.m. Monday at the Knight Baseball Complex in the district tournament.
Steubenville 4, Toronto 2
Toronto 002 000 0 - 2 7 2
Steubenville 200 020 x - 4 9 0
TORONTO: Sninchak (LP, 6K, 1BB), King (6,0K, 0BB) and King, Solomon (6); Owens D, S; Sninchak D, 2rbi; Lucas 2S; Romey S; Cox S.
STEUBENVILLE: Corsi (WP, 3K, 0BB), J. Pierro (5, 2K, 4BB) and McClurg; Panella T, D, rbi; B. Pierro D, rbi; J. Pierro 2S; Young S; Colabella 2S, 2rbi; Linn S.
