The Recorder on May 01, 2025
Ram catcher Eli Moore tags out Mason Phillips at the plate. (Recorder photos by Gavin Dressler)
MONTEREY — Four weeks ago, Highland had won just two of its first seven games and was winless in the Pioneer District.
The boys from Monterey had quite the month of April.
Monday on their home field, the Rams put up nine runs in the first inning and held off Bath County late, running their win streak to six games with a 13-8 victory.
The win lifted Highland to an 8-5 mark — 5-3 in the district — while the Chargers slipped to 3-6 overall and 3-3 in the league.
“Just putting work in at practice, I feel like,” HHS coach Cole Armstrong said of his team’s turnaround. “They’ve really been working hard in practice trying to improve defensively and offensively. I feel like that’s paying off.”
Evan Kimble pulled off a lot of the heavy lifting on Monday. He had three hits and drove in four runs to lead a 12-hit Highland offensive charge.
Kimble drove in one with a single through the middle in the first, had a two-out, two-run knock in the third and added an RBI single to right in the fifth.
Ram Patton Hull steals second as Bath’s Issac Ingram attempts the tag.
“I just look for my pitch, it’s got to be a pretty pitch,” said the senior third baseman. “I know my job up there. I get runners on base; I got to do what I got to do.”
The Rams had five hits and benefitted from two errors, a pair of walks and a hit batter in the opening inning, sending 13 hitters to the plate.
John Wagner, Patton Hull and Zach Armstrong had two-run singles in the inning.
“That was a great inning,” coach Armstrong said. “We got the bats crackin’ and threw some runs on the board. I wish we could have kept carrying that through a little bit more. But I think Bath’s pitching, they started hitting some spots.”
The Chargers cut their deficit to 9-4 after two innings and three more in the top of the third made it 9-7.
Nathan Hunt relieved Issac Ingram in the second and kept the visitors close.
“Nathan came in and gave us a spark,” Bath County coach Jake Phillips said. “It’s great to see him gain confidence on the mound. We’ve been relying on him kind of being a set-up guy all year long, but tonight the way the game went, he had to come in earlier than what we wanted — earlier than expected. But he delivered. He was pitching outs. That’s what you’ve got to have.”
John Wagner delivers a pitch for the Rams.
Jake Boguess had a two-run double for Bath in the second and Wyatt Campbell followed with an RBI single. In the third, Gunnar Whiddon doubled and scored and Ingram, Owen Perdue and Cooper Lowry put together infield hits.
But after a Perdue sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth cut the Highland lead to 11-8, Wagner, the Rams’ starting pitcher, and Armstrong, who worked in relief, held the Chargers scoreless over the final three innings.
Levi Warner’s outfield assist from right completed a double play to end the fifth and Armstrong retired all six of the Chargers he faced, including two by strikeout to end the game.
Highland’s Elijah Good steals second ahead of the tag from Bath County’s Nathan Hunt.
“We made some errors that let them come back in,” said Armstrong. “Levi Warner, that really helped us when he threw the guy out at home from rightfield. But all in all, it was a great hard-fought game by both teams.”
Elijah Good joined Kimble with three hits for the Rams, Hull had two hits and scored four runs, and Armstrong, Wagner, Eli Moore and Tristan Carpenter had one hit each.
Wagner notched his fourth win, pitching five innings and striking out six.
Campbell and Ingram each had two hits for the Chargers, while Whiddon, Perdue, Cooper Lowry, Hunt, Mason Phillips and Boguess had one hit apiece.
Bath County, who has lost three of its last four, plays at Pocahontas County, W.Va., today and has four games in four days next week.
“Get on the AD, get on him,” said Phillips who, yes, is also the Charger athletic director. “That fool, with what we’re doing with pitch counts, playing that many stinking games in a row.
“It’s just the way the schedule fell,” he added a little more seriously. “We’ve canceled this Pocahontas game three or four times. We’ve driven over there one time and it started snowing on us. Hopefully, we can get this one in Thursday and then we get to play a whole lot of baseball. It’s going to be fun. We get to play a lot of baseball.”
Bath County’s Cooper Lowry slides safely into third ahead of the tag from Evan Kimble.
The Rams are scheduled to close the regular season next week at home against Eastern Montgomery on Tuesday and with the rematch against Bath County on Thursday in Hot Springs.
“We’ve got a lot more wins we need to get,” Armstrong said. “Like I tell them, we’ve got to keep playing better, keep playing better. Because everybody else is playing better.”
Monday’s Linescore
Bath County 133 100 0 – 8 10 3
Highland 902 020 x – 13 12 5
WP: John Wagner (4-3); LP: Issac Ingram
(2-2)
Highland’s Tristan Carpenter leaps to avoid a low inside pitch. (Recorder photo by Gavin Dressler)
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