Quartet of locals named All-SHAC Baseball

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

In the annual vote of the coaches, the Southern Hills Athletic Conference recognized its All-Conference Baseball Team for the 2023 season. Adams County is represented by a quartet of young men, three seniors and a junior, seniors Zane Porter and Cory Reed from Peebles, senior Aaron Lucas from Manchester and junior Caleb Rothwell from North Adams.

Perhaps the most inspring story of the 2023 baseball season was that of Zane Porter. Porter underwent Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow and it was feared that he might miss his senior baseball season as he did his senior basketball season. That was not the case, however, as Porter made it back for the baseball season and took over as the Peebles first baseman as he was unable to pitch, though he was inserted on the mound in a game vs. West Union late in the season and was able to throw two pitches.

Porter’s stat line for his senior season was pretty impressive, beginning with a .516 batting average with a .686 on-base percentage. Porter banged out a pair of doubles and three triples, drove home 27 runs and scored 16. He drew 17 walks and was 16 of 19 on stolen base attempts. In the field, Porter had a fielding percentage of .968, committing just two errors for the 11-7 Indians.

Senior Cory Reed also had a banner sparing for the Indians, hitting. 365 with an on-base percentage of .453. Reed drove in 12 runs and led the squad with 21 runs scored. On the base paths, he was 16 for 17 in stolen base attempts. In the field, Reed was perfect, committing no errors in 52 chances.

Look up “senior leadership” in the dictionary and look for the accompanying photo of Manchester’s Aaron Lucas. Besides his impressive statistics, Lucas brought limitless intangibles to the young Greyhound team, leading by example, spending most of his time behind the plate as the team’s catcher. In his final campaign in the blue and gold, Lucas batted .327 with five doubles and 11 RBI’s. He scored 17 runs and drew 18 bases-on-balls. On the mound, the senior right hander was 2-0 with a 4.45 earned run average, striking out 32 hitters in 28.1 innings pitched.

The ace of the North Adams pitching staff, Caleb Rothwell went 3-4 this spring with a sparkling 2.43 earned run average. Rothwell started eight games, three 40.1 innings and fanned 39 opposing hitters. At the plate, he hit .364 with a .440 OBP, adding four double and two triples. Rothwell also drove home 19 runs and was 13 for 14 in stolen base attempts for Coach Rob Meade’s 7-15 Green Devils.

The remainder of the 2023 SHAC All-Conference Baseball Team included: Josiah Burns and Cole Wells (Lynchburg); Landon Barnett, and Eli Roberts (Whiteoak); Emery, Ian Griffith, Nate Price, Luken Roades (Whiteoak); Gabe Fouch, Cade Miller and Dow Moon (Fairfield); Spencer Gray (Ripley); Wyatt Haupt, Pryce Murphy and Carter Vaughn (Eastern Brown); Clayton Holden and Austin Snider (Fayetteville).

The 2023 SHAC Player of the Year was Landon Barnett from Whiteoak and the Coach of the Year was Fairfield’s Kyle Zimmerman.

2023 SHAC Baseball Standings

Division I (Big School)

Fairfield 12-1

Eastern Brown 10-3

Lynchburg 5-7

North Adams 5-8

West Union 2-22

Division II (Small School)

Whiteoak 12-1

Fayetteville 8-5

Peebles 8-5

Manchester 3-10

Ripley 0-13