Right hander Tyler Horsley pitched the final two innings for North Adams in their 24-0 win over Ripley on April 10.

Story and photo by Mark Carpenter – 

The North Adams baseball nine jumped their record over .500 for the first time this spring as the boarded the bus on Monday, April 10 and made the trip to Ripley to battle the Blue Jays in a Southern Hills Athletic Conference contest. It didn’t turn out to be much of a battle, however, as three North Adams pitchers combined on a one-hit shutout and the Devils’ offense exploded for 14 hits, including home runs from Bryant Lung and Ben Figgins in a huge 16-run second inning, in a 24-0 blanking of the struggling Blue Jays. The win improved the Devils to 3-2 on the season, 1-1 in the SHAC.
The North Adams nine came off the bus swinging and put up three runs in the top of the first inning as their first three hitters reached on Ripley errors and it was all downhill for the Blue Jays from there.
Already up three runs, the Devils came to bat in the top of the second and stayed there awhile. Taking advantage of six fielding miscues by the young Ripley squad, the Devils sent 20 batters to the plate, banged out 10 hits, including five for extra bases, and plated 16 runs. Colt Shumaker had two hits in the inning, as did Bryant Lung and Ben Figgins, and it was Lung and Figgins providing the big blows as Lung doubled and smashed a two-run homer to left, while Figgins tripled and then blasted a three-run homer to left.
Now with a commanding lead, North Adams head coach Rob Meade was able to use every player on his roster, scratching and scribbling his lineup card each inning to keep track of who was playing where. In the top of the third, the Devils tacked on four more runs, getting an RBI base hit from Michael Gill, a sacrifice fly that scored a run from Parks, a bases loaded walk to Uriah Hall, and a run-scoring single from Noah Lung.
Another Blue Jay error in the top of the fifth allowed Nolan Newman to cross the plate with the game’s final run as the Devils completed the run-rule 24-0 triumph.
While the North Adams offense was coloring in the scorebook, a trio of pitchers for the Devils were combining to pitch five innings of one-hit, shutout baseball. Austin Parks went the first two, Noah Lung the middle inning, and Tyler Horsley the final two frames.

N. Adams
3(16)4 01 –24
Ripley
000 00 –0

N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): B. Lung 3-3-2-3, Williams 1-1-0-0, Shupert 3-4-0-0, Young 3-2-0-1, Gill 3-1-1-1, Parks 3-2-2-3, Daulton 5-3-1-2, Horsley 3-2-1-1, Figgins 4-2-2-5, Hall 0-0-0-1, N. Lung 4-1-2-2, Roessler 1-0-0-0, Shumaker 3-2-2-1, Newman 2-1-1-0, Team 38-24-14-20.
Extra-Base Hits: N. Lung 2B; B. Lung 2B, HR; Figgins 3B, HR

Ripley Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Dunn 2-0-0-0, Akers 1-0-0-0, Rigdon 1-0-0-0, Castle 1-0-0-0, Boone 2-0-0-0, Adams 1-0-0-0, Reuss 1-0-1-0, Starrett 1-0-0-0, McGuffey 2-0-0-0, Bartley 1-0-0-0, Team 13-0-1-0.

Winning Pitcher- Parks
Losing Pitcher- Rigdon