By Mark Carpenter
It has certainly been a tough season to date for the West Union Dragons varsity baseball squad, a young group with very little varsity experience on the roster. In fact, the West Union varsity is more like the JV team as all but the three seniors on the roster participate in the program’s JV contests. As of press time, the Dragons stood at 0-8 and didn’t even score a run in their first five losses.
The West Union offense did show signs of life on April 15 when they plated 12 runs at North Adams, unfortunately their pitching and defense gave up 23.
There have been few if any highlights for West Union this season, at least until an April 20 loss to Ripley. Dragons sophomore Colby harover set a new school record with seven stolen bases in a 13-9 loss, coming up just one short of the OHSAA record of eight swipes in a game. The game was an overall impressive stat line for Harover as he scored four runs and just for good measure, pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief.
The Dragons actually played Ripley on back-to-back days, traveling to Brown County on Monday, April 19 and then hosting the Jays the following day. In Monday’s game between two winless teams, the Dragons were shutout for the sixth time in eight outing, with Ripley getting the 13-0 run rule win in five innings. The Dragons were held to just four hits by Ripley southpaw Spencer Gray, while the Jays’s offense scored 13 off of a pair of West Union hurlers, Ethan Boldman and Derrick Pell, both of whom likely deserved better fates as the Dragons’ defense allowed seven unearned runs.
After being blanked by Boldman in their first at-bat, the Blue Jays scored in their next three, two in the second, six in the third, and five in the fourth. When Gray struck out West Union;s Chris Steed for the final out in the top of the fifth, the mercy rule was enforced and it was the Jays who came away with their first win of the spring.
Tuesday’s game in West Union was far more competitive but the rest was the same, a win for Ripley. The Blue Jays got to Dragons’ starter Jaden Davis for s five-spot in the top of the first inning, putting the home team in an immediate hole, but West Union did get two of those back in the bottom half off of Ripley starter Chaystin Shields. Harover singled, stole second and third then scored on an error on a fly ball off the bat of Landen Fulton. Fulton later came home on a base hit to right by Davis to make it 5-2.
Neither team dented the plate in the second inning and the Jays added one to their lead in the top of the third, but West Union responded in their half with two runs to stay close. With one out. Harover walked and moved to second on a passed ball. The speedy soph then took matters into his own hands, swiping third and home for the Dragons’ third run of the game. Fulton was hit by a Shields pitch, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on a passed ball to make it 6-4.
Prosperity didn’t last long for the Dragons as the visiting Jays struck for three more runs in the top of the fourth, while the Dragons answered with one in the bottom of the fourth, Chase Taylor crossing the plate to pull West Union within 9-5.
It was also a scoring fifth for both sides, one for Ripley and two for West Union as the Dragons still remained in striking distance for their first win. The two West Union runs were again scored by the duo of Harover and Fulton. The Jays added one to their lead in the top of the sixth and two more off of Harover in the top of the seventh. With one more opportunity for a miracle comeback, the Dragons did pick up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, once again with Harover and Fulton making the successful 90-foot trip between third and home, but those two runs fell short as the Blue Jays made it two wins in two days over the Dragons, this time by a final count of 13-9.
The 0-8 Dragons had their next shot at their first victory on Thursday, April 22 when they traveled to Fayetteville for a Southern Hills Athletic Conference and then faced a tough task SHAC contest on Friday when they hosted Peebles.
BOX SCORE
Ripley
501 311 2— 13
West Union
202 120 2— 9
Ripley Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Gibson 4-1-2-1, Lykins 4-3-2-0, Morgan 4-1-0-0, Bruggeman 5-3-1-4, Gray 3-3-1-1, Germann 4-0-1-0, King 3-0-1-2, Shields 2-2-0-0, Himes 2-0-0-1, Garlejo 1-0-0-0, Team 32-13-8-9.
Extra-Base Hits: Bruggeman 3B
W. Union Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Derrick Pell 4-0-0-0, Harover 1-4-1-0, Fulton 2-4-1-1, Dakota Pell 3-0-2-0, Washburn 1-0-1-1, Davis 4-0-1-2, Boldman 3-0-0-0. Taylor 0-1-0-0, Ellis 2-0-0-1, Team 23-9-6-5.
Ripley Pitching: Shields (W) 2.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 31 pitches
Bruggeman (W) 1.2 IP, 0 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 54 pitches
Morgan 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 42 pitches
W. Union Pitching: Davis (L) 3.2 IP, 6 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 93 pitches
Harover 3.1 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 62 pitches
