By Cort Reynolds

ARLINGTON __The visiting Ada High School baseball team defeated Blanchard Valley Conference foe Arlington 6-1 on a warm Wednesday, April 15.

A triple play, timely hitting and strong relief pitching helped the Bulldogs earn the victory. The rarest of defensive plays, the way Ada turned three was also extremely unusual.

“It was a good win,” said Ada head coach Toby Smith. “We made a bunch of nice plays in the field, and turned a triple play as well. Shanks and Wibley’s pitching kept them at bay.”

The Bulldogs turned the rare triple play in the fourth inning. Arlington had runners on the corners with none out and two strikes on the batter. The runner on first took off to steal on the pitch.

Bulldog Robert Shanks struck out the Red Devil batter on that pitch. Ada catcher Andrew Allen faked a throw to second base, and Shanks eventually tagged the runner who had started out on third in a rundown for the second out.

The Devil runner who stole second, then tried to keep going during the home plate rundown to third base. He was thrown out by Shanks at third as shortstop Wes Mowery applied the tag to complete the defensive rarity.

The official scoring on the triple play was strikeout 1-2, then 2-5-1, 1-6.

Ada improved to 6-3 overall and 2-2 in the BVC with the road win.

Arlington dropped to 0-7 overall and 0-3 in BVC play after the defeat.

Ada out-hit the Devils, 6-4. Arlington committed five errors that led to four unearned runs. The Bulldogs made two miscues.

Ada trailed 1-0 after the first inning. The Bulldogs then plated two runs in each of the second, third and fourth frames to build a five-run lead. Ada pitching held the Devils scoreless over the final six innings.

Shanks earned the win with 4.3 innings of hitless relief pitching. He struck out three and walked one. A total of 33 of his 47 pitches went for strikes and or were put in play. Offensively, he singled and scored three runs.

Bulldog Logan Fleece delivered a two-run single and swiped a bag. Allen singled and stole one base. Thad Smith walked three times and scored a run with one steal. Colt Archer also hit an RBI single.

Mowery singled home a run, scored once and drew two walks. Allen and Fleece were each hit by a pitch.

Mason Wibley started on the mound for Ada and pitched 2.7 innings. He gave up four hits and one earned run while whiffing four with one walk. He also singled and drew a walk.

Ada left nine runners on base, while the Devils stranded five baserunners.  

Losing pitcher Landon Berno tossed four innings, allowing five hits and only two of the six runs that scored on his watch were earned runs. He struck out six and walked four.   

Devil Nicholas Clark threw the final three innings in relief. He gave up no hits, but walked three and struck out four.  

The Bulldogs are scheduled to play non-league foe Perry (4-2) at Dayton on Friday.

WP-Shanks LP-Berno