Big Red’s Matt Fabbro slides into home plate while Wheeling Park’s Miles Gorby look to make a tag. Fabbro was out on the play. - Andrew Grimm

Wednesday’s meeting between Big Red and Wheeling Park at the Crimson Complex was one of those such games.

Despite Big Red out-hitting the Patriots 7-1 and pitcher Hayden Hicks firing seven strikeouts in another complete game effort, it was Wheeling Park that headed back south with a 2-1 victory for a season sweep, both wins by the same score.

“We scattered our hits, we didn’t get the timely hit until one late in the game,” Big Red head coach Fred Heatherington said. “We out-hit them, I thought we out-pitched them, we played good defense and they played great defense, we just didn’t get the timely hit. We’re getting there, we’re getting better, we just have to keep fighting.

“(Wheeling Park) is a good team, they had been on a losing streak playing some really good teams down south, but they’re a good team and they play great defense.

LINING IT UP — Big Red’s Kail Simmons swings at a pitch against Wheeling Park on Wednesday at the Crimson Complex. Simmons had two hits in a 2-1 loss to the Patriots. - Andrew Grimm

“It was a (heck) of a game, we just came out on the wrong end of it.”

Park (12-5) scored a run each in the first two innings and it ended up being just enough. Kolten Whitmire scored on a passed ball in the first inning and Nate Simon scored a run on an error in the second.

From there, Hicks kept the Patriots off the board the rest of the way.

However, Park starter Miles Gorby likewise kept Steubenville (4-6) off the scoreboard through his six scoreless innings while striking out three and walking one.

Big Red came close to getting on the board when they put two on with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, but a run got cut down at the plate after a quick recovery by Park catcher Nolan Yanchak following an overthrow that went to the backstop.

Big Red’s Royal Mayo swings at a pitch against Wheeling Park on Wednesday. - Andrew Grimm

Big Red ended the inning stranding runners on second and third.

An inning later, that out at the plate proved to be vital as the hosts did get on the board when, after a dropped foul ball with two outs extended the game, Maddox Gulan hit a two-out RBI single to make it 2-1.

Park’s Erik Blazier, though, got a popout to end the game and earn the save.

“It was a really good high school baseball game all the way through,” Wheeling Park head coach Steve Myers said. “We got great starting pitching and brought a young man in at the end and he got the save. It was an exciting baseball game. It seems like always a one-run game between these teams, we played good defense, battled, scratched out a couple runs and relied on our pitching and defense.

“It’s good for us to get a nice win like this after a couple tough ones to get some momentum back.”

UP NEXT

Wheeling Park: Travels to the McDonald’s Classic in Bridgeport, W.Va. Friday and Saturday, playing twice on Friday.

Steubenville: Finishes a busy week today hosting Indian Valley at the Crimson Complex.

Wheeling Park 2, Steubenville 1

W 1-1-0 0-0-0 0 – 2 1 0

S 0-0-0 0-0-0 1 – 1 7 1

WHEELING PARK (12-5): Gorby (WP, 6IP, 0R, 6H, 3K, 1BB), Blazier (SV, 1IP, 1R, 1ER, 1H, 0K, 1BB) and Yanchak. Whitmire S.

STEUBENVILLE (4-6): Hicks (LP, CG, 2R, 1ER, 1H, 7K, 5BB, 2HBP) and Simmons. Hicks 2S; Simmons 2S; Gulan 2S, RBI; Blackburn S.