ASHLAND – At long last, Mother Nature let the Ashland baseball team open up its $300,000 present.
Following what essentially was a 12-day weather delay that pushed their home-opening game from March 23 to Wednesday afternoon, the Arrows finally got to step between the lines onto the newly renovated Bud Plank Field at Archer Arrows Park.
Senior ace Luke Bryant provided clutch efforts on the mound and at the plate, as Ashland survived a fourth-inning uprising from visiting Mount Vernon for a 7-6 victory.
Rain sprinkles, heavy gray clouds and sunshine were off and on throughout the afternoon, but the Arrows (1-1, 1-1 Ohio Cardinal Conference) were able to lock down a victory in about two hours – not long before a brief batch of hail rolled into town.
Fittingly, sixth-year Ashland head coach Rick Gough said it was a game that never would have been played before an offseason overhaul to the facility that included new underground tile. The improved drainage allowed for the field to be made playable after storms earlier in the week.
Also part of the renovation were a new press box, scoreboard, backstop and dugouts – a total of roughly $300,000 worth of enhancements made possible by a variety of generous local donors and the AHS baseball parents fundraising group.
“It’s really almost new everything here and we’re super grateful to have the opportunity to finally play on it,” Bryant said.
“We were really excited; it’s been really hard on our guys getting games canceled,” the right-hander added. “… We finally were able to do it in front of a home crowd and it was great to be here.”
While Mount Vernon (3-2, 2-1) came into the day having already played four games – including an OCC sweep last week of Lexington – the Arrows had their home-opener moved on three occasions.
The only game they had managed to squeeze in was a 3-0, no-hit loss last Thursday at Wooster that saw Ashland finish with 11 strikeouts.
The Arrows and Gough graduated All-OCC standouts in center fielder Jon Metzger and shortstop Kamden Mowry, among other key hitters, but Wednesday showed this year’s squad might have some scrappiness in it.
With just one hit and trailing 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning, the Yellow Jackets strung together three infield singles – two of them driving in a run – to set the table for a big inning.
A two-run double to right-center from Kayden Packard (2-for-4, 2 runs) was followed by a sharp RBI single from Konner Daughriety and Mount Vernon had a 5-3 lead.
But Ashland immediately answered with a four-run fourth to surge back in front, 7-5.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” said Gough when asked of the pitching matchup between the Ohio University-bound Bryant and the Ashland University-bound Daughriety. “I didn’t think it would be 7-6; I was thinking more like 2-1 or 3-2.”
“I’m most proud of the way our kids punched back,” the coach said. “In the past, last year’s team, if we got down two runs (it was over). But this group, I’ve been telling them to fight back, and they did.”
Daughriety, the defending OCC Player of the Year, got seven of his first nine outs on the mound via the strikeout, but errors and free passes allowed AHS to build a 3-0 advantage through three innings.
Then in the bottom of the fourth, the Arrows pieced together their cold-weather comeback. A single from Michael Franz (2-for-3, 2 runs) was followed by a walk from Ethan Bunce and an RBI bloop single from Alex Grissinger to chase the right-handed Daughriety after 3 1/3 innings.
Bryant then welcomed left-handed reliever Jagger Dohn with an RBI infield single to the right side on which he dove to beat the first baseman to the bag.
Then, with the game tied at 5-5, C.J. Cox roped a single to left to plate the game-winning runs. Bryant slid in to score from second just past the tag of MVHS catcher Ezra Kurek.
“Nothing happens if you don’t hit the ball,” Cox said. “We struck out 11 times against Wooster. Strikeouts don’t win games. We came out here, a lot of us put the ball in play … and we ran the bases well.”
The Arrows didn’t get another hit or run off Dohn, who combined with Daughriety to strike out 12. But coupled with a sloppy first inning that saw AHS use three free passes and an error to plate two runs, Mount Vernon didn’t do itself any favors.
“This conference is wide open, as everyone knows, so we’ve just got to find a way to get to the next one,” sixth-year Yellow Jackets head coach Nate Hunt said. “The best team doesn’t always win – it’s the team that plays the best.”
Hunt said his lineup has the talent to be explosive. Along with Daughriety heading to AU, the coach said Kurek is a junior committed to Eastern Michigan while Packard plans to play collegiately and center fielder Jonny Askew (2-for-3, run) is headed to Mercyhurst to play football with the hopes to also be a walk-on baseball player there.
“We’ve got some talent and we’ve got a good top-five of guys,” Hunt said. “It’s just finding those other guys to get into it and play their part.”
The coach said Daughriety is pitching for the first time this season and is the ultimate competitor, but the Yellow Jackets knew they had their hands full with Bryant, the OCC Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore.
“Like I’ve said for what feels like 100 years now, any time Luke’s on the bump, that team has a chance,” Hunt said.
Bryant, who struck out 11 in a complete-game four-hitter against Wooster last week, was stretched enough by Mount Vernon that his day was done after four innings and 83 pitches. He threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 22 batters he faced before reliever Tyler Holt closed things out over the final three frames.
The right-hander gave up an RBI double in the sixth to Zac Clow, but finished with four strikeouts and retired all three batters he faced in both the fifth and seventh innings.
“He’s our No. 3 starter and in league play he’s going to pitch in relief,” Gough said. “I knew he had it in him. … We haven’t had a lot of repetitions yet, but he threw well today.”
“We just fought,” Bryant said. “It was a whole team thing … we did the little things. When you do the little things you’ll get rewarded for it.”
It was the 1,101st win in the history of Ashland High School baseball, as the Arrows now are competing in their 114th season. Gough said it was a massive relief to get it done on a field that so many have poured hours and dollars into in recent years.
“You sit around all day just looking at the radar. It’s just good to play ball here,” said Gough, who has been a baseball coach at AHS in some capacity since 1991.
“It’s phenomenal to last this long (with the program) and to see the changes that I’ve seen.”
Major donors for specific enhancements to Bud Plank Field at Archer Arrows Park include:
– Bob and Jan Archer, funded the new dugouts and scoreboard.
– Aaron Harris, funded the new Bill Harris Dealerships Pressbox.
– Scott Conery and Annette Hruby, funded the new Norma Foundation Backstop.
– The Wurster Family, will fund the new paved Wurster Family Walkway from Katherine Ave. to the pressbox.
