The 2025 Southern Hills Athletic Conference All-Conference Baseball Tea. Front row, from left, Jacen Applegate (Whiteoak), Luke Applegate (Manchester), Thomas Barnhart (Manchester), Cody Bell (Lynchburg), Josiah Burns (Lynchburg) and Blaine Fauber (Fairfield); Middle row, from left, Caleb Fehring (Fayetteville), Christian Flowers (Lynchburg), Zane Matthews (Fairfield), Jonah Michael (Whiteoak), Bryce Murphy (Eastern Brown) and Jackson Prine (Eastern Brown); Back row, from left, Carsyn Raines (North Adams), Brandon Rayburn (Peebles), Zander Roades (Whiteoak), AJ Roy (Fayetteville), Cole Wells (Lynchburg), Quin Wells (Lynchburg), Braedon West (Lynchburg) and Corbin Willey (Fairfield). (Photo courtesy of Southern Hills Athletic Conference)
Pictured above are thee 2025 Southern Hills Athletic Conference Baseball Player of the year and Coach of the Year. From left, Player of the Year Cole Wells, Lunchburg and Coach of the Year James Flowers, Lynchburg. (Photo courtesy of Southern Hills Athletic Conference)
Luke Applegate, Manchester (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Thomas Barnhart, Manchester (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Brandon Rayburn, Peebles (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Brandon Rayburn, Peebles (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Carsyn Raines, North Adams (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The 2025 baseball season in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference was totally dominated by one team and that was evident as the conference recently released its 2025 All-Conference Team. The Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs steamrolled through the SHAC, pulverizing opponents, winning the gold ball trophy with a perfect conference mark and then making a memorable postseason run to the Division V Final Four.
That success led the baseball coaches of the SHAC to put two-thirds of the Mustangs’ starting lineup on the All-Conference Team. an unprecedented six players earning recognition as well as the Coach of the Year. As far as the schools from Adams County, a quartet of young men received All-Conference honors- a pair from Manchester plus one each from Peebles and North Adams.
Manchester junior Luke Applegate was named All-Conference after hitting .431 (25-58, fourth in SHAC) for the spring with an on-base percentage of .548. Applegate scored 29 runs and banged out 14 extra-base hits, including 12 doubles. The junior shortstop/pitcher drove home 18 runs and stole 12 bases. Recovering from some arm problems, Applegate went 2-0 on the mound with a 4.12 earned run average.
Also from Manchester, sophomore catcher/pitcher Thomas Barnhart was named to the All-Conference Team after going 20-48 (.417), scoring 16 runs and collecting 13 extra-base hits, a number that included eight doubles and a team-leading four home runs (second in SHAC). Barnhart was fourth in the conference and led the Hounds with 29 RBI’s with a .522 on-base percentage. On the mound, Barnhart went 3-0 with an earned run average of 2.96, striking out 32 opponents in 23.2 innings pitched.
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