By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Through eight games this season, it has been feast or famine for Coach Ryan Unger and his North Adams Green Devils varsity baseball squad. sitting 3-5 at press time, it has been wither win big or lose big for the Green Devils as they just completed a marathon week that included five games in six days. Coach Unger’s squad went 2-3 in those five contests, losing to Trimble (8-6), trouncing Ripley (29-2), losing to Lynchburg (17-1), Beating West Union (11-1) and falling to Paint Valley (17-1).
“This season has been up and down, like a roller coaster ride,” said Coach Unger. “When we put it all together, we are a tough team. Pitching, like every year, is key. We still have plenty of time and a lot of league games left to still finish in the top part of the league. We believe in ourselves, and that’s all that matters.”
After falling to the Trimble Tomcats on April 6 in a non-conference game played at VA Memorial Stadium. the Green Devils were back at home the next day to face a winless Ripley Blue Jays squad and to say it was all North Adams would be an understatement, Putting up 10 runs in the first inning against the hapless Blue Jays was the beginning of a 29-2 rout in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action.
Besides picking up a conference win, the contest with Ripley saw two Green Devils etch their names in the OHSAA baseball record books. The stat line of catcher Colin Tolle read like something from a slow-pitch softball game- six hits in six at-bats, five runs scored and four driven in. The six hits in a single game placed Tolle in a tie for second place in the state record book, trailing only Zack Pack of Southington Chalker, who had seven hits in a game last season.
Also hitting the state record books was North Adams senior first baseman/pitcher Cooper Roush. Roush moved into a second-place tie in the state annals by getting hit by a pitch four times in the game by Ripley pitching. Overall, the Green Devils pounded out 17 hits in four at-bats in the run-rule victory, with nine hitters chalking up base hits in the scorebook.
Two days later, April 9, the Green Devils did something that most SHAC teams have done in the past couple of seasons- lose big to the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs, a Final Four team last season. On their home field, the North Adams pitching combo of Trace Evans and Cash Hupp couldn’t slow down the mighty Mustangs, who rolled to a 17-1 run-rule victory.
On April 1o, the Devils were on the road in conference play, traveling to match up with another winless squad, the West Union Dragons. The North Adams bats roughed up West Union starter Thomas Barnhart for 11 runs, though not many of his doing as the Dragons’ defense did little to support Barnhart, committing 12 errors. Meanwhile, the Devils got a solid pitching performance from Cooper Roush, who tossed five innings of two-hit baseball, striking out 10 West Union hitters in an 11-1 North Adams win.
A likely exhausted North Adams squad finished the hectic week on Saturday, April 11, hosting Paint Valley and falling big to the Bearcats by a 17-1 final. Paint Valley took care of business early, scoring three times in the first inning and then adding a 13-spot in the second to put things out of reach.
Standing at 3-5 as this week began, the Devils face another busy week, this time in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play, where they began the week at 3-1. On Tuesday, North Adams traveled to Fayetteville, then hosted the Fairfield Lions on Tuesday. (Those results were not available at press deadline.) On Thursday, April 16, the Devils hit the road gain, crossing the Brown County border to face the Eastern Brown Warriors.
Box Score
Ripley 000 02 —2
North Adams
(10)65 8x —29
Ripley Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Lang 2-1-1-0, Cropper 3-0-1-0, Lomax 3-0-0-0, Baldwin 1-0-0-1, Cloud 0-0-0-0, Flaugher 1-0-0-0, Gast 0-0-0-0, Forsee 1-0-0-0, Wilson 1-0-0-0, Whisman 1-0-0-0, Thomas 2-0-0-0, Perraut 2-0-0-0, Mitchell 0-1-0-0, Team 17-2-2-1.
N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Winkler 4-4-2-1, Tolle 6-5-6-4, Shiveley 4-4-2-4, Roush 2-3-1-3, Evans 3-2-2-2, Hupp 3-2-1-3, West 2-2-1-1, D’Ambra 1-1-0-1, Dean 2-2-0-0, Swayne 1-2-1-1-, Krchmar 2-2-1-0, Team 30-29-17-20.
Ripley Pitching:
Forsee (L) 1.1 IP, 7 H, 15 R, 9 ER, 4 BB, 65 pitches
Wilson 2 IP, 10 H, 14 R, 12 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 33 pitches
Whisman 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R
N. Adams Pitching:
Hupp (W) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 46 pitches
Roush 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 5 K, 22 pitches
Shiveley 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 40 pitches
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