Three Wolverine baseballers named to all-POI teams

Nodaway Valley/O-M baseball has three players receiving all-conference mention by the Pride of Iowa Conference following the recent season.

Representing the Wolverines on the first team is senior infielder and pitcher Boston DeVault. On second team is senior infielder and pitcher Jase Davidson. Paul Berg, a sophomore infielder and pitcher, made honorable mention.

First Team

DeVault caps his prep baseball season, before going to Central College to play the sport, batting .493 on the year, hitting nine doubles, two triples and driving in 11 runs. He had a conference-high 82 strikeouts on the season from the mound, where he went 3-3 with a 1.96 ERA.

When he wasn’t pitching, DeVault mainly played shortstop, though he also logged a few innings at third base.

“Boston’s just a true competitor, he’s willing to take the ball on the mound against all of the better teams. He wanted to be up there because he knew he could do it. He’s a very intelligent kid, a fighter, and always gave it everything he had for us, whether he was at the plate, on the mound or in the field,” NV/O-M head coach Dan Jameson said.

With DeVault on first team are unanimous picks Jaxson Cornet of Central Decatur and Jaixen Frost of Mount Ayr. Others honored are Samson Adams, Keigan Kitzman and Dawson Evans of Lenox; Luke Frost and Logan Wearmouth of Martensdale-St. Marys, Austin Lack of East Union; Kale Rockhold and Landon McKillip of Central Decatur; and Kenton Prunty and Strait Jacobsen of Wayne.

Second Team

Davidson is a second team member after he hit .283 his senior season, including six singles, eight doubles and three triples, while driving in 14 runs. He committed only three errors in the field all season. He was also a part of the Wolverines’ pitching rotation.

“Jase is a really good kid. He trimmed off about 30 pounds from last year and came in with a new physique. That made quite a bit of difference. He led us with three triples this year, so that made a big difference in his speed on the bases,” Jameson said. “When Boston was on the mound and Jase was at first base, our pick off combination was pretty deadly with Boston’s quick moves and Jase’s quick hands.”

With Davidson on the second team are unanimous picks Carter Reed of Lenox and Josh Lopez of East Union. Others are Seth Hudson of East Union; Klemit Olney, Micah Nally, Silas Walston and Quentin King of Bedford; Jayden Broich of Central Decatur; Waylon Cook of Lenox; Caden Carruthers, Tate Dierking and Drake Steil of Southeast Warren; Adler Reed and Drew Ehlen of Mount Ayr; and Owen Paul of Southwest Valley.

Honorable Mention

A left-handed batter for the Wolverines, Berg finished the year hitting .400, with a team-leading 16 RBI. He hit five doubles and a triple on the season. On the mound, he went 1-4 with 17 strikeouts.

Jameson calls Berg the team’s true utility player, as he oftentimes played whatever position the pitcher was coming from.

“Wherever he played, he played at a high level, too. He wasn’t just filling a spot,” Jameson said. “I think he had three throw outs from the catcher spot this year. He can do some amazing things and we’ve got a couple more years out of him yet.”

Other honorable mentions were Logan Moyer of Bedford; Lane Leeper of Central Decatur; Kameron Wethington of East Union, Caeden David of Lenox, Jaxson Bowlin of Martensdale-St. Marys, Rowan Sackett of Mount Ayr, Caden Crow of Southeast Warren, Walker Bissell of Southwest Valley and Fischer Buckingham of Wayne.

Season recap

While finishing 6-17 overall isn’t where the Wolverines wanted to finish, there are several positives they took away from this season.

Early in the season, NV/O-M won three games in a row, including a high-offense night against Southwest Valley and a close win over Bedford, which ended up finishing second in the league. The Bulldogs would eventually lose twice to the Wolverines. Later in the year, the Wolverines eked out close wins over Southwest Valley and East Union.

“We had quite a few strikeouts this year but we had a lot of nice plays throughout the year. Eli [Harris] became more comfortable at third base with making the nice plays over there routinely. Tyson [Ross] had a really nice year in the outfield and had some nice spurts where he was really hitting the ball well. We got Bedford twice, and they’re always capable of putting up double-digit runs,” Jameson said. “We have a lot of guys who came along this year. We had guys who were pretty coachable. I wish we could’ve squeaked through a few more wins, but that’s the way it goes.”