West Union baseball routs Ripley 25-4, sweeps season series

West Union needed only one inning to turn a close start into a runaway.

After a scoreless opening frame from both teams, the Dragons broke the game open in the second inning with 15 runs and sent 20 batters to the plate, burying Ripley 25-4 in five innings on April 30. The win gave John Shelton’s club its second victory over the Blue Jays this season and pushed the combined margin in the two meetings to 42-4.

Ripley had retired West Union in order to begin the game, but that calm did not last long. The Dragons strung together hits, walks, errors and wild pitches in the second inning, and the inning never seemed to end for the Blue Jays at home. By the time West Union finished batting in the frame, the pressure had shifted entirely to Ripley, and the rest of the afternoon became a matter of closing out the scoreline.

West Union did not ease off after the 15-run burst. The Dragons added five more runs in the third inning and another five in the fourth, keeping the game out of reach long before the mercy-rule finish after five innings. The final margin, one of the most lopsided in Adams County this spring, reflected not just one hot inning but a lineup that kept extending the damage.

Billy Flaugher, Matty Byron, Thomas Barnhart, Jace Morgan and Tegan Knox all played a part in the offensive surge. Barnhart was especially efficient, finishing with three hits and three RBI. Byron went 2 for 4 and drove in four runs, giving West Union another middle-order threat in a game where nearly every trip to the plate added stress for Ripley.

Nate Fooce earned the win on the mound as West Union backed him with one of its most productive offensive outings of the season. For a team that had spent much of the spring searching for consistency, the sweep over Ripley offered a clear sign of what Shelton’s group can do when the bats open up. The Dragons’ record still carried the scars of a difficult season, but with final week SHAC play approaching, the two wins over Ripley showed that West Union has enough offense to seize control quickly when a matchup tilts in its favor.