By Rick Ryan, Charleston Gazette-Mail
The Eastern Panhandle has long been one of the dominant forces in West Virginia Class AAA baseball, with its schools producing 17 state championships and eight state players of the year.
Hedgesville junior outfielder Chase DeLauter adds to that tradition this season as he was chosen first-team captain of the all-state squad as selected by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
Morgantown High senior pitcher Andrew Kerzak and University High senior infielder Ross Mulhall also were voted to the first team.
Kerzak was 6-0 and fashioned a 0.86 ERA for the Mohigans.
Mulhall hit .474 with 11 homers and 42 RBIs for the Hawks.
MHS infielder Caleb Taylor was a second-team selection.
Preston’s Corey Pyles and Hawks Cam Stoldt and Casey Smith earned special honorable mention. Honorable mention selections included MHS’s Devon Neal and Quintin Smith, Preston’s Ethan Haskiell and UHS’s Hunter Cottrell.
DeLauter, a utility player on the 15-man first team, was a force both in the batting order and on the mound for the Eagles, who went 21-10.
He hit an even .500 (50 for 100), and flashed a lot of extra-base power with 22 doubles, four triples and four home runs. He also drove in 28 runs. As a pitcher, DeLauter went 10-1 with a 1.90 earned run average and 57 strikeouts.
DeLauter was joined by two other Eastern Panhandle players on the first team, infielder Garrett Hobson, of state tournament entry Martinsburg, and outfielder Spencer Delawder, of Washington.
Hobson, primarily a first baseman, hit .467 with 18 doubles, scoring 29 runs and driving in 35. Delawder, also a first-team all-state pick last year, batted .494 with 31 RBIs and stole a dozen bases. He had 14 assists, mostly as an outfielder.
Other first-team players included pitchers Jake Carr (St. Albans) and Michael Maiolo (Woodrow Wilson), infielders Trevor Thomas (Wheeling Park) and Todd Burner (Parkersburg South), catcher Aidan Johnson (George Washington), outfielders Easton Petitt (Cabell Midland) and Noah Cummings (St. Albans), and utility players Madison Jeffrey (Cabell Midland), Tyler Cox (Hurricane) and Alex Jarrell (South Charleston).
Carr missed S.A.’s first six games due to an appendectomy, but rebounded to go 4-1 as a pitcher with 67 strikeouts in just 37 1/3 innings and a
1.31 ERA. He threw a one-hitter with 13 K’s for the defending champion Red Dragons in the state tournament semifinals, but lost, 1-0, to Wheeling Park. On the season, Carr also hit .423 with three homers and 33 RBIs.
Maiolo, like Delawder and Carr a repeat first-team choice, went 5-2 with 80 strikeouts in 48 innings and a 1.75 ERA. His hitting stats included a .385 average with 10 doubles and 18 RBIs.
Thomas hit .419 with 22 RBIs for the Patriots, who played in the state finals for the first time in program history. As a pitcher, he was 2-1 with 1.93 ERA in 29 innings. Burner batted .430 with four homers and 32 runs batted in.
Johnson led G.W. in most offensive categories, batting .427 with seven homers and 22 RBIs and also drew 22 walks, boosting his on-base percentage to .564.
Joining Delawder in the outfield are Petitt, who hit .441 with 12 doubles and 29 RBIs, and Cummings, who batted .462 with five homers and 50 RBIs.
Cox, a sophomore second baseman-pitcher, helped Hurricane capture the AAA title by hitting .380 with a team-high 44 RBIs. He also threw 47 2/3 innings, second-most on the squad, going 6-1 with a
1.91 ERA. In the state tournament, he went 3 for 4 with five RBIs, including a two-run triple against Park and three sacrifice flies against Martinsburg.
The other utility players were Jeffrey, who hit .382 for Midland with 25 RBIs and went 5-1 as a pitcher (50 K’s in 341/3 innings, 2.24 ERA), and Jarrell, 4-2 as a pitcher (79 strikeouts in 451/3 innings, 0.77 ERA) and a .341 batting average with 16 steals.
