By Mark Carpenter-
Coach Rob Meade and his North Adams Green Devils varsity baseball squad seem to have found their groove, capping off a successful week with wins on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6 to improve their record to 5-2 on the spring. In Southern Hills Athletic Conference action, the Devils overcame an early deficit to defeat Manchester on Friday by a final score of 13-6, then bounced back the next morning with a trip to the VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe where they dominated the Northwest Mohawks in a five inning run-rule win, 12-0.
The Saturday win made it a four-game winning streak for the Green Devils, with an 8-8 suspended game with Fayetteville right in the middle of that streak.
On Friday, the Devils traveled to Manchester for the conference match up between the two squads, with a non-conference game set for later in the season. Trailing early 5-1, the Devils roared back with eight unanswered runs and eventually pulled away for the 13-6 triumph. The victors pounded out 15 hits, three each for the outfield duo of Dalton Gardner and Evan Whalen and got a 6 2/3 inning performance from starter Ethan Thompson.
The Devils broke through with a single run in the top of the first off of Manchester starter Josh Tumbleson when Gardner led off the game with a single and came around to score on a double to left off the bat of Zach Osborne. It remained a one-run game until the Greyhounds came to bat in the bottom of the second and erupted for five runs, getting a two-base hit from freshman Jackson Pole to start the rally, and base hits from Kaleb Henschen, Jacob Calvert, Cade Colvin, plus two walks and a North Adams error that all resulted in a 5-1 lead for the home team.
The Devils began to chip away at that deficit in the top half of the third, getting two runs back on sacrifice flies by Elijah Young and Osborne to slice the Manchester advantage in half. The North Adams bats came all the way back in their half of the fourth, getting two more to tie the game at 5. Lukas Roush came into score on a Greyhound miscue and the tying run came across on an RBI single by Thompson, off of Manchester reliever Nathan Rife.
The visitors took the lead for good in the top of the sixth. Carson Hall and Gardner began the frame with base hits and moved up a base on a Thompson ground out. A base hit to left by Young scored Hall and Gardner came home when Osborne reached safely on an error, making it 7-5 Devils. A later bases loaded walk to R.J. Taylor forced home the third run of the inning and Osborne raced home on a wild pitch to give North Adams a four-run lead.
For insurance, the Devils picked up four more runs in the top of the seventh, getting a run-scoring double to left from Thompson, an RBI single from Osborne, and a base hit by Whalen that scored two and made it 13-5.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Hounds got a run-scoring base hit from Kyle Reaves and with two outs, Coach Meade called on Gardner in relief and the junior right-hander needed just three pitches to induce a game-ending fielder’s choice ground ball as the Green Devils secured the come-from-behind 13-6 victory.
One out away from a complete game, Thompson was the winning pitcher, giving up just three earned runs and striking out four. One of four pitchers used by Greyhound head coach Dustin Cook, in relief, Rife was tagged with the loss for the Greyhounds.
“I liked the way we competed at Manchester on Friday,” said Coach Meade. “We made some critical defensive plays to end innings without giving up more runs, but give Coach Cook and his team credit, they really swung the bats and kept the pressure on us. Ethan had a nice game on the mound for us and it helped tremendously that he was able to go deep into the game given that we had played four conference games that week.”
North Adams
102 204 4 –13
Manchester
050 000 1 –6
N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Gardner 4-4-3-0, Thompson 5-1-2-2. Young 4-1-1-2, Osborne 4-2-2-4, S. Meade 2-1-1-0, Taylor 3-0-0-1, Whalen 4-0-3-2, Roush 4-1-1-0, Hall 5-3-2-0, Team 35-13-15-11.
Extra-Base Hits: Gardner 2B, Osborne 2B, Thompson 2B
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Rife 4-2-1-0, Colvin 4-0-2-2, Reaves 4-0-2-1, Poole 3-1-1-0, Henschen 2-1-1-0, Flack 0-0-0-0, Tumbleson 2-0-0-0, James 1-0-0-0, Calvert 3-1-1-1, Reed 1-1-0-0, Young 1-0-0-0, Bell 2-0-0-1, Team 27-6-8-5.
Extra-Base Hits: Pole 2B
N. Adams Pitching:
Thompson (W) 6.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 101 pitches
Gardner 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 pitches
Manchester Pitching:
Tumbleson 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 51 pitches
Rife (L) 2.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 62 pitches
Colvin 1.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 48 pitches
Poole 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 pitches
A quick turnaround saw the Devils in Chillicothe on Saturday morning, facing the Northwest Mohawks in non-conference play and the story of the day was the pitching effort of senior Elijah Young. Young, who had thrown a seven-inning complete game shutout earlier in the week in a 2-0 win over Fairfield, was lights out again on Saturday, extending his scoreless inning streak to 12 with a one-hitter as the Devils run ruled the Mohawks 12-0 in five.
While Young was facing just two batters over the minimum through five, the Devils took care of business on the offensive end early and often, scoring four in the bottom of the first and five in the bottom of the third to put the game essentially out of reach. Three more in the fourth accounted for the 12-0 final score in a game where Coach Meade was able to use his entire roster.
The Devils banged out nine hits in the win and took advantage of seven walks issued by Northwest pitchers, along with four fielding errors by the Mohawks, getting two RBI’s each from Thompson and Colby Bunn as they improved their record to 5-2 on the spring.
“I was really pleased with our effort on Saturday,” said Coach Meade. “I thought our approach to the game was great and after a tough week we could have easily had a letdown. Elijah had another great performance on the mound for us and it’s a great experience for the kids to play at the VA and I was happy that all our players had the opportunity to get on the field.”
This week was another active one for the Green Devils with conference games galore, Tuesday at Eastern Brown, Thursday at home with Lynchburg, and back on the road on Friday at West Union. On Saturday, April 13, the Devils will host a unique and old school three-team Wooden Bat Tournament, with games scheduled against Georgetown and Portsmouth beginning at 11 a.m.
“Hopefully the momentum from last week will carry over to this week as we face a very tough conference schedule in Eastern, Lynchburg and West Union,” added Coach Meade.
Northwest
000 00 –0
North Adams
405 3x –12
N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Gardner 1-1-0-0, Roush 2-0-1-1, Thompson 3-1-2-2, Young 4-0-1-0, Osborne 3-1-0-1, S.Meade 0-3-0-0, Thatcher 0-0-0-0, Taylor 1-2-0-0, Roades 1-0-1-1, Whalen 1-0-0-0, Lung 1-1-1-0, Hall 2-0-1-0, Wylie 0-1-0-0, Eldridge 1-1-1-1, Bunn 3-1-1-2, Team 23-12-9-8.
Extra-Base Hits: Thompson 3B
N. Adams Pitching:
Young (W) 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 58 pitches
