By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
West Union baseball coach John Shelton and his clutch of Dragons would be all smiles if they saw the Ripley Blue Jays on their schedule more often. Shelton’s 2026 sq1uad has managed just two wins on the spring, both of them coming at the expense of the winless Blue Jays, outscoring the Jays in the two wins 42-4.
The latest victory over Ripley came on April 30 on the Jays’ home field and it was another ugly chapter in what is undoubtedly the most dismal season in the home team’s history. In losing 14 times, the Jays have been run ruled in every game and outscored 317-9. So, it was the Dragons adding to that total last week as they used a big 15-run second inning to rout the Jays by a final count of 25-4 in five innings.
Things began well for the Jays as they retired the Dragons in order on three pop outs in the top of the first, but thing changed dramatically in the top of the second. West Union sent 20 batters to the plate, combining hits, walks, errors and wild pitches to see 15 of those hitters cross the plate.
The Jays got to West Union starter Nate Fooce for a pair of runs in the bottom of the second, but the Dragons answered with five more in the top of the third, by this time playing just station to station. A Billy Flaugher base hit drove home one, followed by a run-scoring hit by Matty Byron. A Thomas Barnhart single brought home another as did a hit to right by Jace Morgan. The final run of the inning came on a bases full walk to Tegan Knox, making it 20-2 West Union.
Ripley added two more in the bottom of the third, only to see the Dragons put up five more in the top half of the fourth. Walk, single, error, single, walk, hit by pitch, singe single, and the Dragons were on top 25-4. With Byron on the mound for West Union in the bottom of the fourth, the Blue Jays went scoreless and the game was called after four with the lopsided score.
The Dragons had 13 hits in the win and took advantage of 14 walks by Ripley pitchers. Barnhart led the way with three hits and three RBI’s, pushing his average to .538 on the spring. Matty Byron went 2 for 4 and drove home four runs as West Union improved to 2-13 on the season, 2-8 in conference play. Billy Flaugher went 2 for 2 and drove in three while Nate Fooce pitched into the third inning to get the win for the Dragons.
The Dragons were on SHAC action on Tuesday, hosting the North Adams Green Devils, then on to New Boston on Wednesday in a non-conference battle. Thursday will see the West Union nine back home for a conference match up with Fayetteville and their final conference contest comes Friday when they host Eastern Brown,
West Union
0(15)5 5 —25
Ripley
022 0 —4
W. Union Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Byron 4-4-2-4, Barnhart 4-2-3-3, Morgan 2-1-1-2, Baldwin 1-0-0-1, T. Knox 0-2-0-3, Young 0-1-0-0, Fooce 4-2-1-2, G. Knox 1-3-0-1, Ferguson 1-3-1-1, Dryden 0-3-0-1, Clarkson 1-0-1-1, Dmeza 2-0-0-0, Rogers 1-1-1-0, Flaugher 2-2-2-3, Ursin 1-1-1-1, Team 24-25-13 -23.
Extra-Base Hits: Byron 2B
Ripley Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Lomax 3-0-0-0, Bussard 3-0-1-0, Cloud 3-1-0-0, Perraut 2-1-1-0, Bolar 1-1-1-0, Baldwin 0-1-0-0, White 2-0-0-0, Gast 1-0-0-0, Team 17-4-3-0.
W. Union Pitching:
Fooce (W) 2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 57 pitches
Byron 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 K, 12 pitches
Clarkson 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 13 pitches