photo by: Kim North

St. Clairsville shortstop Jaxon Starks prepares to tag Barnesville’s Casey Carpenter to end the second inning of Thursday’s 13-0 victory by the Red Devils. Carpenter had gotten picked off first base.

BARNESVILLE – St. Clairsville lost a boatload of talent from last year’s OVAC Class 4A championship squad, including four players who are competing at the NCAA Division I and II levels this spring. However, you couldn’t tell by its play so far in the 2025 campaign.

The Red Devils (8-1) banged out 17 hits – including seven from the No. 8 and No. 9 spots in their order – in blanking Barnesville, 13-0, Thursday on the sun-soaked Memorial Park diamond in western Belmont County.

With the lop-sided victory, St. Clairsville won for the seventh straight time and kept a grip on the top spot in the OVAC Class 4A race over rival Indian Creek, whom they defeated in last year’s title tilt. The Red Devils travel to Don Coss Field in Cambridge today to meet the Bobcats. The OVAC playoff cut-off is Friday and semi-final action is scheduled for Monday across the Ohio Valley.

“When the bottom of your order can produce like ours did today, that really helps your team,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva acknowledged. “I tell the kids all the time ‘that it’s never everybody all the time, but it’s got to be somebody every time.'”

A pair of freshmen – Matheson King (2 singles, 2 runs scored) and Jaxon Starks (3 singles, 2 runs scored) – continually got on base and turned the lineup over for the top. Even when Sliva went to his bench in those spots, Brennan Rice doubled and scored while Landon Stack singled in a run.

With runners on base, leadoff hitter Caiden Bailey singled three times to drive in a pair, while Hanna helped his own cause with a single and sacrifice fly that knocked in two runs. Ashland University recruit Brody Saunders plated five runs with a single, double and sac fly and Colten Florence cleared the bases with a double for three runs batted in.

“We started off a little slow,” Sliva admitted. “But when we got going, we got going.”

Indeed they did.

St. Clairsville sent 10 batters to the plate in a six-run fourth inning that built the margin to 9-0. It scored four more times in the seventh.

After a 5-0 start, the Shamrocks have fallen upon some tough times, going 1-5 in the last six outings.

“In the 23 years I’ve been a coach, this year is the worst job I’ve ever done,” Barnesville head coach DJ Butler said. “I blame myself. We’ve got way too much talent to be in the situation we are in right now. We might’ve played ourselves out of the OVAC (Class 3A) top 4. We need to get better for the sectional (tournament).”

Barnesville, which hosts Martins Ferry tonight under the lights at Memorial Park, entered the game in third place in the closely bunched OVAC Class 3A race. The Shamrocks were less than a full point behind second-place Fort Frye and fractions of a point ahead of Union Local, Martins Ferry, Monroe Central and Buckeye Trail.

The beneficiary of the offensive outburst was sophomore southpaw Roby Hanna.

“My fastball was pretty effective today,” Hanna said. “In my first outing I had 14 strikeouts. Today I only had three. I just pitched to contact and let my defense do what they do.”

The lefty wasn’t as overpowering today as he was in his first start when he struck out 14. He only fanned three, walked just one and scattered four singles in throwing 102 pitches, of which 70 were strikes. He threw a first-pitch strike to 19 of the 27 Shamrocks he faced; induced 10 ground ball outs, five fly outs, a line drive out, picked a runner off and saw a runner taken off the basepaths after being forced out following a single.

“He got ahead of most of the hitters. He does a good job of that,” Sliva said. “He threw strikes and did a really good job today.”

Caleb Powell had two of Barnesville’s four singles.