Adams County players earn multiple spots on 2026 All-SHAC team

Adams County put nine players on the 2026 All-SHAC baseball team, a countywide spread that reached four schools and showed how broad the local talent base was across the Southern Hills Athletic Conference. North Adams and Peebles each landed three selections, Manchester added two and West Union had one more name on the list.

The Southern Hills Athletic Conference recognized the team during its spring sports banquet, and the published photo caption named Manchester’s Luke Applegate and Clayton Colvin, North Adams’ Trace Evans, Colin Tolle and Maverick Winkler, Peebles’ Nash Grooms, Bo Johnson and Braylen Stephens, and West Union’s Thomas Barnhart, who was listed but not pictured. That breakdown gave Adams County a clear footprint on the postseason honor roll, with North Adams and Peebles tying for the largest single-school presence in the county.

For the programs themselves, the numbers tell a useful story. North Adams matched Peebles with three honorees, a sign that its lineup produced multiple players who stood out over the course of the season. Manchester’s two selections kept the Greyhounds in the county conversation, while West Union’s single representative showed the Indians still broke through in a league where recognition was spread across several schools. For players such as Applegate, Colvin, Evans, Tolle, Winkler, Grooms, Johnson, Stephens and Barnhart, the All-SHAC label adds a concrete line for college coaches and a postseason marker for each program’s record book.

The 2026 list also fits into a larger competitive picture. Lynchburg-Clay finished first in SHAC Division I baseball with a perfect 13-0 record and earned the gold ball award, setting the standard for the league’s top end. In Highland County, that same postseason cycle later produced statewide recognition too, with Whiteoak’s Izayah Clift earning second-team Division VII All-Ohio honors and Lynchburg-Clay’s Elam Faust, Quin Wells and Kristian Beachy receiving honorable mention in Division V. Together, those results show that All-SHAC honors were not just a season-ending formality: they were part of a pipeline from local success to broader attention, and Adams County’s nine selections put the county firmly in that mix.