North Adams baseball falls in district quarterfinal, still shows progress

Symmes Valley seized control before North Adams could settle in, scoring two runs in the first inning and three more in the third to turn the Division VI district quarterfinal into a one-sided exit for the Green Devils. By the time North Adams finally put a ball in play for a hit, Maverick Winkler had already singled with two outs in the third, and the season was slipping away on the long road trip to the Vikings.

The No. 9 seed from Adams County entered the bracket on May 12 knowing it had just missed a home quarterfinal. Ryan Unger said he expected North Adams to land between the 8 and 10 seeds and wanted the No. 8 seed to host, and the bracket sent the Green Devils to Symmes Valley on May 19 with a possible district semifinal against Huntington on May 23 at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. Instead, Symmes Valley senior Tanner Corn kept North Adams from ever building momentum, throwing a four-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts over 111 pitches, 76 for strikes.

North Adams finished with four hits, one each from Winkler, Cooper Roush, Cash Hupp and Jaxon Krchmar. Roush singled in the fourth, and a pair of baserunners in the fifth never turned into the rally the Green Devils needed. Symmes Valley added two more runs in that fifth inning and closed the door for good, while North Adams pitchers Trace Evans, Roush and Carsyn Raines combined in the loss.

Even with the abrupt postseason ending, the season marked real progress for a program that had spent years looking for traction. North Adams closed at 10-16 overall and 8-5 in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, and Unger said it was the program’s first double-digit-win season in a number of years. The Green Devils also beat Whiteoak and Eastern Brown in the same season for the first time in years, a sign that the roster had begun to stack wins against familiar conference opponents instead of merely flashing in isolated games.

That growth was built on a younger core and two senior leaders. Colin Tolle and Cooper Roush were praised as stabilizing voices, and freshman Maverick Winkler emerged as the team’s top hitter, batting .382 with 14 RBI and 25 stolen bases. Roush finished his senior year at .357 with 18 RBI, 15 runs scored, a 3-3 pitching record, a 3.63 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 46.1 innings. North Adams still has work to do, but after a 3-5 start through eight games and the kind of “roller coaster ride” that defined its spring, the Green Devils leave 2026 with measurable progress and a young foundation that should keep them in the race next year.