By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Spring sports seasons have been completed and along with that comes the distribution of all of the postseason awards that the hard-working student/athletes have earned. the first of those is always the All-Conference softball and baseball teams from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, voted on by the SHAC coaches. Last week, the Defender highlighted the All-Conference softball team and this week it is the All-Conference baseball squad.
Nineteen talented young men received All-Conference baseball recognition, five of those coming from Adams County schools. The Manchester Greyhounds led the way with three honorees, with North Adams and Peebles placing one player each.
Manchester sophomore Luke Applegate is one of the up-and-coming players in the Southeast District and his outstanding 2024 season earned him a spot on the SHAC All-Conference Team. At the plate, Applegate hit .311 on the spring with eight doubles, a triple and a home run. He scored 30 runs and drove home 18, while being successful on 29 of 30 stolen base attempts. On the mound, the hard-throwing right hander was 4-5 overall with an earned run average of 2.38, fanning 93 hitters in 53 innings, with a season-high of 14 in a no-hit win over Ripley.
Bursting on the scene as a freshman was Manchester’s Thomas Barnhart, whose performance in his first year of high school baseball was impressive enough to grab a spot on the All-Conference squad. Barnhart hit .372 with an on-base percentage of .433, banging out 11 doubles and two triples. The freshman backstop scored 25 runs and drove in 25 and was safe on 20 of 22 of his stolen base attempts.
the third Greyhound to be named to the All-Conference Team was senior Drew Kennedy. Kennedy hit .266 in 2024 with six extra-base hits, four doubles, a triple, and a homer. Kennedy drove in 18 and scored 26, successful on 22 of 24 steal attempts. On the mound, Kennedy had a banner spring, going 7-0 with a minuscule 0.90 earned run average, allowing just nine hits in the 129 batters he faced. The righty also struck out 39 hitters in 31 innings of work.
North Adams senior Easton Daulton turned a nice 2024 season into a spot on the All-Conference Team, hitting .333 on the spring with 24 hits, including five doubles. Daulton had 14 RBIs for the Green Devils and scored 20 runs while compiling eight stolen bases.
Peebles senior Gage Grooms was the Tribe’s lone representative on the All-Conference Team, hitting a robust .439 for the season, going 18 for 41 overall, Grooms scored 13 runs for the Indians and added seven stolen bases.
The remainder of the 2024 SHAC All-Conference Baseball Team includes: Christian Flowers, Cole Wells and Braedon West (Lynchburg-Clay): Gabe Fouch, Zane Matthews and Cade Miller (Fairfield); Wyatt Haupt, Bryce Murphy, Wylee Sawyers and Carter Vaughn (Eastern Brown); Clayton Holden (Fayetteville); Kaden Moon-Stone, Zander Roades and Eli Roberts (Whiteoak).
In the SHAC Spring Sports Awards on June 4 in Fayetteville, Eastern Brown’s Wyatt Haupt was named the Conference Player of the Year while Coach Steve Goetz was named the Coach of the Year.
2024 SHAC Baseball Final Standings
Division I (Big School)
Eastern Brown 12-1
Lynchburg-Clay 11-2
North Adams 5-8
Peebles 4-9
West Union 1-12
Division II (Small School)
Fairfield 10-3
Whiteoak 9-4
Manchester 8-5
Fayetteville 5-8
Ripley 0-13