By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
n a spring season pock-marked by baseball cancellations Calhoun finally played its second game of the year Monday at home against Braxton.
And Calhoun lost.
But it was not a slaughter. As a matter of fact the Red Devils lost only 7-4 in a game they might have won had it not been for some fielding miscues in the fourth and fifth innings when Braxton County overtook the Red Devils and took the lead for good.
But the improvement from game one to this game was evident.
"We're building something here," senior left fielder Lucas Wilson said after the game. "We've improved a lot and we're going to get better."
This optimism was much unlike it was decades ago when a former coach said "three days of rain is a winning streak."
And that attitude of malaise was prevalent for many years despite the Red Devils' on-and-off good seasons with outstanding players. It was a year-to-year thing and there was not any real building toward the future.
But change started three years ago when basketball coach Danny Bunch got the school involved in a league for middle school aged players.
Bunch and other saw the need to have a program to carry the players from little league to high school without having a two-year gap with no baseball.
That two-year gap not only cost valuable practice and skill building time, it also cost players as many when little league ended simply decided to hang it up rather than take a two-year hiatus then try to come back.
This year Calhoun has 24 players on the roster.
The middle school league team, the Calhoun Reds suffered though growing pains the first and were winless. But last year the team won some games and was competitive in a league that included schools from Parkersburg, Clarksburg, Marietta, Ohio, and various smaller towns in between.
This is the third year for the Reds and a goodly number of players have signed up for the program.
The growth and program building have been on the field.
Recently some parents and boosters undertook draining and doing away with a swampy area behind home plate and the first base dugout area by laying drainage tiles.
And the final step in program building has been in the number of fans in the stands. While not a football, basketball or wrestling crowd the fan base has grown appreciably this season despite an admission fee being charged for the first time.
Calhoun took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Braxton when leadoff hitter Ethyn Miller single, stole second and went to third when Braxton made a throwing error while trying to pick him off. Miller scored on a double by senior Michael Fulks.
Braxton took the lead in the second only to have the Red Devils roar back in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs for a 3-2 lead.
Starting pitcher Caden Hicks started things out with a single then took second when Miller hit into a ground out. After Hicks stole third Sam Brady worked the pitcher for a walk then stole second.
Fulks was then hit by a pitch and Jazz Holcomb followed with a single plating Hicks. Brady scored moments later on an infield out.
Sadly that was all Calhoun could manage until the seventh inning when it pushed across a run.
Calhoun is, as Wilson said, building something here.
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