Parkersburg Post 15's Nic Akers dives safely into home during Tuesday's 5-4 loss to Clarksburg Post 13 at City Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Landon Frazier worked 4 1-3 innings of three-hit relief on a hot Tuesday evening at Bennett Stump Field inside City Park as Clarksburg Post 13 held on for a 5-4 victory against Parkersburg Post 15.

Parkersburg, which is off until Friday when they play in the Cambridge 4th of July tournament, watched Post 13 push across five runs in the top of the first off losing pitcher Cam Cumpston, who had the only two-hit effort for the hosts.

“We haven’t played for a week so we were a little rusty and you could tell the first inning,” admitted Post 15 manager Mike Goodwin, whose squad handed Post 13 a 6-1 setback in their season opener. “I mean we uncharacteristically did not pitch well at all in the first inning. We dug ourselves a big hole and gave them five runs along with a couple of errors in the field. That set the tone and we had to dig ourselves out, and we almost did.

“Again, we didn’t let them score anymore, but you got to make up for the first inning and we didn’t. The Frazier kid pitched well. Had us a little off-balance and we had too many strikeouts. The one inning (sixth) we went 1-2-3 and you can’t do that when you’re trying to come back from a five-run deficit. Credit to Clarksburg. They did enough to win the ballgame and that’s what they did.”

Clarksburg, which lifted starter Jax Anderson with two outs in the third, sent 10 batters to the plate in the first and scored four earned runs off Cumpston, who was hurt by soft contact.

Parkersburg Post 15 manager Mike Goodwin talks strategy with Cooper Cancade during Tuesday's 5-4 loss to Clarksburg Post 13 at City Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Steven Lee and Jaxson Maglowski got things going with a one-out single and double, respectively, but Cumpston fanned cleanup hitter Reed Lowther for the second out. However, Gabe Ferrell punched a two-run single to right. Chris Mazzei followed with a single and after Anderson coaxed a free pass the bases were loaded for Turner Shriver, who hit a two-run single to center as an outfield error on the play cleared the bases for the 5-0 advantage.

Post 15 appeared as though it might have a big first inning of its own, but had to settle for a pair of runs after having the bases loaded with nobody out for cleanup hitter Cooper Cancade.

Leadoff man CJ McCartney reached on an error and Easton Miller, who was replaced by courtesy runner Carter Life, was hit by a pitch. Hitting for Cumpston, Nic Akers then walked to load them up and Cancade hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate McCartney, but Life was called out for leaving second too early.

After Eli Davis drew a base on balls and Peyton West delivered an RBI single to make it 5-2, No. 7 hitter Bo Hudkins came up with runners on the corners, but Davis was picked off and tagged out in a rundown.

Hudkins singled and scored in the second to cut the deficit to a pair when McCartney reached on a bloop single to shallow right.

Clarksburg Post 13's Turner Shriver, pictured here hitting a double to the gap in left-center, had a two-run single in the first inning during Tuesday's 5-4 victory versus Parkersburg Post 15 at City Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Parkersburg, which slipped to 11-6 and faces New Philadelphia at 5:30 p.m. Friday followed by Marietta at 8 p.m., pushed across its final run in the third. Cumpston singled, stole second and scored from third on a wild pitch after getting moved over via a Davis sacrifice bunt.

Frazier got West to fly out to end the third and retired seven straight before allowing a Cancade single in the fifth. However, he then sat down the next half dozen Post 15 batters before Miller and Cumpston reached on back-to-back two-out singles to bring Cancade up with the tying run at second.

Cancade hit a slow chopper to third and thought he had his second hit of the affair, but he was called out at first on a bang-bang play to end the game.

Akers worked 2 1-3 frames of one-hit ball and Seth Menarchek threw the final four innings and allowed a quartet of hits to keep Post 15 within striking distance.

“Nic Akers and Seth stabilized us as far as the pitching goes and shut them down after the first inning,” added Goodwin, whose squad left four runners in scoring position as Post 13 improved to 9-7.

Parkersburg Post 15 assistant coach Jeff Thompson has a meeting at the mound during the first inning of Tuesday's 5-4 loss to Clarksburg Post 13 at City Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I can’t give them enough credit. They did what they had to do to give our offense a chance to get back in, but Frazier countered against us and that was too big of a hill to climb.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Clarksburg 5, Parkersburg 4

Post 13 500 000 0 – 5 10 3

Post 15 211 000 0 – 4 7 2

WP: Landon Frazier 4.1IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 3SO

Jax Anderson (starter) 2.1IP, 4H, 4R, 3ER, 3BB, 1SO

LP: Cam Cumpston .2IP, 5H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB, 2SO

Nic Akers 2.1IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 4SO

Seth Menarchek 4IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 3SO

Clarksburg Post 13 (9-7) hitting: Steven Lee 1-3 R, SB; Jaxson Maglowski 2-4 R, 2B; Mason Belcastro 1-2; Gabe Ferrell 1-3 R, SB, 2 RBIs; Chris Mazzei 1-4 R; Anderson R; Frazier 1-2; Turner Shriver 2-3, 2B, 2 RBIs; Brogan Medina 1-1

Parkersburg Post 15 (11-6) hitting: CJ McCartney 1-4 R, 2 SB, RBI; Easton Miller 1-3; Carter Life SB; Cumpston 2-3 R, SB; Akers R, SB; Cooper Cancade 1-2 SB, RBI; Peyton West 1-3 RBI; Bo Hudkins 1-2 R, SB

Next game: Parkesburg Post 15 at Cambridge July 4th tournament, Friday-Sunday; vs. New Philadelphia, 5:30 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. vs. Marietta Post 64.