The Recorder on May 22, 2025
The Rams celebrate their victory. (Photo courtesy Lori Moore)
MONTEREY — The Region C baseball tournament is coming to Ed Crigler Field next week.
John Wagner pitched around five walks and allowed just one hit in a complete-game effort Tuesday, leading Highland to a 3-1 victory over Bath County in the semifinals of the Pioneer District baseball tournament.
The win was the eighth straight for the Rams, who improved to 10-5 on the year. It sends them to the district championship game today at Narrows and, win or lose, earned them a quarterfinal home game against either Fort Chiswell or Giles next Wednesday in Monterey.
“What an accomplishment,” said an emotional Ram head coach Cole Armstrong. “It’s just blown me away. The thing is, I’ve been with them since they were 7-8 years old. It means so much that they have come together and played such good ball this year. We just don’t want it to end. We want it to keep going.”
The Rams outhit the Chargers 9-1 in the semifinal matchup, but it was the Bath County defense that kept them in it.
Catcher Gunnar Whiddon chased down a wild pitch and made a tag at the plate and second baseman Wyatt Campbell had a hustle unassisted play at first base in the first inning, and the Chargers used double plays to end both the fifth and sixth.
“We got a couple double plays, huge,” said BCHS coach Jake Phillips. “We get a put out at home plate with Gunnar, which was amazing. Wyatt makes an unbelievable play at second. You look at the plays we made on defense, there’s a reason why the first week of practice we never saw a live pitch. All we concentrated on was throwing and defense, throwing and defense, throwing and defense. We knew we were going to have to rely on those two things.”
Offensively, Bath County wasn’t able to scratch much against Wagner.
Nathan Hunt’s fifth-inning leadoff single was the lone knock of the game for the visitors. He moved to second on a Hunter Kirby walk, to third when Issac Ingram reached on an error and scored on a walk to Wyatt Campbell.
The Chargers managed just three other baserunners combined in the other six innings.
“Probably five balls today, they found holes on us,” said Phillips. “And I swear every ground ball we hit, I don’t think they moved out of their tracks. That’s baseball.”
Patton Hull had a big game at the plate for Highland.
The junior leadoff man went 3-for-3, scored two runs and stole three bases.
Hull singled and scored on a Zach Armstrong RBI hit in the second, and in the fifth he led off with a base hit, stole second and third and scored on an Evan Kimble hit.
“Patton has really stepped up as our leadoff hitter,” said Armstrong. “He’s really stepped up the last few games. That proved big tonight. And what a great performance from John. He had some tough situations and just powered through it and kept working hard.”
Carpenter’s infield single, a wild pitch and an RBI hit from Elijah Good plated the Rams fourth-inning run.
The three runs were enough for Wagner, who used 97 pitches to earn his sixth win of the year and his third against the Chargers.
Wagner retired the last seven hitters he faced, the final four with strikeouts.
“I had to find it,” said the senior. “We were good in the start and had a little rough fourth and fifth innings. But sixth and seventh I found my groove, locked it back in and got out of my own head.
“It’s amazing,” he added about securing a home regional game. “We’ve always tried our hardest out here. Last year, we lost our first game in the district tournament in the rain. It’s amazing to lock in a home game for regionals.”
Hull’s three hits led Highland, Armstrong and Carpenter had two each, while Kimble and Good had one apiece.
Hunt started and pitched well for the Chargers, allowing just two runs — one earned — over three and two-thirds of an inning. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.
“Nate probably could have gone the whole game, it was the best I’ve seen him on the mound,” said Phillips. “Nate is probably the most improved player on our team. But we were setting up to win a district championship on Thursday. I think they (Highland) were selling out to win tonight. ”
Ingram got a big out with a runner in scoring position in the fourth and finished the game on the bump for Bath, allowing two hits and one run, while striking out one and walking two.
The Chargers (6-10), who secured their spot in the regional with a first round district tournament victory over Craig County on Monday, will host Parry McCluer today in the Pioneer consolation game. The Fighting Blues fell to Narrows in Tuesday’s other semi, 8-1.
Bath County will head to either Auburn, the Mountain Empire regular season champion, or Grayson County next Wednesday for a regional quarterfinal.
It’s quite a turnaround for the Chargers, who finished the season last year with 13 straight losses.
“We’ve just been trying hard,” said BCHS senior Cooper Lowry. “We’ve just put in the work this year. It feels awesome to do good in all of our sports. It feels great to have the team that we do.”
Tuesday’s Linescore
Bath County 000 010 0 – 1 1 2
Highland 001 110 x – 3 9 1
WP: John Wagner (6-3); LP: Nathan Hunt
(1-3)