Marietta Post 64's Jacob Sealey crosses home plate after hitting a home run during Wednesday's district tournament game against Cambridge/Belle Valley at St. Clairsville. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Marietta Post 64 was just three outs away from scoring an American Legion District Tournament win Wednesday evening over Cambridge/Belle Valley Post 84/641 before Mother Nature got in the way.

With Marietta leading 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning in the District Tourney opener at Premier Fields in St. Clairsville, a nasty storm rolled through and forced the game to be suspended until Thursday afternoon.

Up until the time of the rain, Post 64 relied on some outstanding pitching from starter Chris Copen and reliever Jacob Sealey to hold Cambridge/Belle Valley scoreless through the first six innings of the game.

Copen went five and a third scoreless innings but found himself working out of trouble more innings than not as he reached the 100-pitch mark in his final inning of work.

Sealey gave Marietta the lead in the bottom of the third inning when the former Warren Warrior hit a towering drive to left field that cleared the fence for a solo home run.

Post 64 had opportunities in both the fourth and fifth innings to add to their lead but a pair of outstanding defensively plays by the Post 84/641 corner outfielders kept the lead at just a single run.

In the bottom of the fourth inning Cooper Laumann and Landon Utt reached on back-to-back errors by the Cambridge/Belle Valley defense and found themselves on the corners with nobody out.

Braun Doak hit a sinking line drive towards the right field line that right fielder Cohen Mills raced over to make a fine running catch on and then somehow managed to quickly turn towards the plate and fire a strike to catcher Tyler Harrell who tagged Laumann out at the plate for the double play.

Cambridge starting pitcher Garrett Carpenter then got Brandon Cline to end the inning by flying out to center field to keep the lead at 1-0.

Once again Post 64 got the first two runners on base in the bottom of the fifth on a walk to Drew Warden and a single by Logan Fling.

Sealey laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position.

Cambridge/Belle Valley elected to walk lead-off batter Will Tornes to load the bases and Gavin Fling followed by hitting a fly ball to medium deep left field.

This time left fielder Konner McIntire made the catch and fired yet another strike to the plate with Harrell tagging out Warden on a bang-bang play at the plate to once again keep the lead at a run.

Copen allowed at least two base runners in three of his five innings of work and was replaced on the mound by Sealey after allowing a two-out double to Dakoda Rich in the bottom of the sixth.

Sealey was up to the task as he fanned Cambridge lead-off batter Mason McQuain to end the threat.

Post 64 picked up a pair of insurance runs in the last of the sixth as they reached Carpenter for four base hits.

Tate Jonas got the inning started with a single and moved to third on a double by Doak.

Catcher Brandon Cline was walked intentionally to load the bases but Warden and Logan Fling made the Riders pay when they both delivered RBI singles to increase the Marietta lead to 3-0.

Cambridge/Belle Valley got their first two runners on base to begin the last of the seventh just before the storm set in forcing the game to be suspended until Thursday.

The game will likely be completed in the afternoon Thursday along with the postponed game featuring Beverly/Lowell vs. Zanesville prior to the regular scheduled games.