By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Though his team hasn’t seen much success in the win column, West Union sophomore Thomas Barnhart has put up some impressive statistics of his own, both at the plate and on the mound. A transfer from Manchester, Barnhart, according to the Southern Hills Athletic Conference as of the end of last week, is hitting .548 (second in the SHAC) with a .667 on-base percentage, and his three home runs lead the conference.
On the mound, the Dragons’ sophomore sports an 0.48 earned run average (second in the SHAC) and leads the conference in strikeouts with 96. His won-loss record is just 1-9, mainly because most of the runs scored against him are unearned.
On Friday, May 8, the West Union right hander etched his name in the school record books in an 8-0 loss to Eastern Brown (all of the runs unearned). In Friday’s game, Barnhart broke the school’s single-game strikeout record as he fanned 17 Eastern hitters, breaking the previous record of 16 held by Kyle Taylor. Ironically, the Eastern hurler on Friday, junior Jaiden Florence, also broke his school’s strikeout record, whiffing 18 West Union batters.
Coach John Shelton’s Dragons have completed conference play, finishing 2-11 in the SHAC, and will finish regular season play this week with a trio of non-conference games- May 12 at Western Latham, May 13 home with Piketon and May 14 at Felicity.
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