Division II Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Bloom-Carroll

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Division II Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Bloom-Carroll

CARROLL - Outstanding defense has helped carry Bloom-Carroll to a 17-2 record this season.

The Prep Baseball Report Division II Team of the Week captured four games this past week to push its winning streak to 15 in a row.

“The defense is the best I’ve ever coached in my 15 years,” pointed out Bloom-Carroll mentor Jason Vest, whose conference-leading squad defeated the second, third and fourth place teams in the Mid-State League this past week. “We’ve had 14 games with no errors and a total of 10 errors on the season, with four of those coming in our first two games.”

But there is more that has helped Bloom-Carroll this season.

“First and foremost, we have a really close-knit group,” the fifth-year head coach of the Bulldogs said. “We had seven freshmen and two sophomores that started two years ago that are now juniors and seniors. We’ve had some injuries, but because we’re so close we’ve been able to weather that.”

Seniors Nick Feasel and Josh Moore have been superb as two-way players this year. Feasel, the 22nd-rated 2021 outfielder in Ohio who is committed to Frontier Community College, is batting .449 with 20 RBIs while holding a 4-0 record with one save on the mound. Moore, a senior who was primarily a pitcher as a sophomore, is averaging .429 with five doubles, five home runs and 20 RBIs as a DH/pitcher. The 97th-ranked 2021 right-handed pitcher in the state is 5-0 on the hill with a 0.75 ERA and two saves, striking out 38 in 28 innings of work.

Junior southpaw Logan Moore a shutout this past week in a 3-0 win over Liberty Union to improve to 6-1 on the season while Nick Feasel threw a shutout in a 6-0 victory over Hebron Lakewood and adds to the pitching depth for  Bloom-Carroll, which also blanked Circleville 12-0 and defeated Teays Valley 11-3 last week.

No player is more valuable than leadoff hitter CJ Carmichael, the sixth-rated junior shortstop in Ohio. A Penn State commit, Carmichael is averaging a team-best .476 with two home runs.

A pair of sophomores, Ayden Anderson and Tyler Parks, are also playing key roles for Bloom-Carroll, a program that won the D-II state championship in 2014 after placing second in 2013. A left fielder who has been a “real nice surprise” according to Vest, Anderson is batting .419 with 16 stolen bases hitting second in the lineup while Parks, a catcher, is averaging .400 with 15 RBIs.

Two junior infielders, Joel Winters and KJ Benedict, are both batting better than .350 for the Bulldogs, Winters a third baseman and Benedict at third baseman.

“For us the key is the same cliche you hear in baseball,” concluded Vest. “Get better every day. Offensively, we’ve come along as the season’s moved on. We base our offense off a small-ball philosophy. As the year has gone along we’ve gotten better at-bats. We just need to keep getting better.”