ALL-NWADG BASEBALL

Springdale Har-Ber’s Brady Patrick (from left) (player of the year), Shiloh Christian’s Moe Henry (coach of the year) and Springdale High’s Andrew Roach (newcomer of the year).
Springdale Har-Ber’s Brady Patrick (from left) (player of the year), Shiloh Christian’s Moe Henry (coach of the year) and Springdale High’s Andrew Roach (newcomer of the year).

BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

BRADY PATRICK, SPRINGDALE HAR-BER

It’s unusual when a player as good as Brady Patrick decides to hang up his cleats after high school.

But that’s the decision Patrick has made after four years as a starter for the Wildcats. Patrick goes out with a bang after hitting .394 and compiling a 7-3 record with a 1.85 earned run average as a senior. Those numbers ordinarily would attract a number of college coaches, but Patrick has told them he’s headed to the University of Arkansas to study engineering.

“I’ve loved every bit of high school, but I’m not going to play in college,” Patrick said. “I just got a job at George’s (Poultry Plant) in Springdale on an internship and I’ll be working with an engineer, so I’m excited about that.”

Patrick, a left-hander, enjoyed many successes at Har-Ber including the football team, where he was a standout defensive back. But his fondest memories came his freshman year when he joined his brother, Hunter Patrick, in the starting lineup for the baseball Wildcats.

Hunter is now a senior at Arkansas, majoring in marketing.

“It was so special getting to play with my brother when he was a senior and I was a freshman,” Patrick said. “There’s a lot of memories from that year I still cherish. Whenever I was pitching, he was out in center field backing me up.”

-Rick Fires

BASEBALL NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

ANDREW ROACH, SPRINGDALE HIGH

Andrew Roach hadn’t played school baseball until this spring, instead making a name for himself in summer travel ball with several of the region’s top teams while being homeschooled during the school year.

The 6-foot-2 junior is still homeschooled but decided to make the transition to public school ball this spring, suiting up for Springdale High and coach Shohn Doty.

“They did better last year (than previously). I noticed they competed, they weren’t getting run-ruled every game,” Roach said. “Close games, one-run (losses), eight of them. So I noticed they were getting better, and I knew it was Doty’s second year and we had a chance to do something pretty good. And we turned it around pretty good.”

In large part because of Roach. The right-hander was Springdale’s No. 1 starter and compiled a 5-4 record with a 1.82 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP, striking out 78 batters in 69 1/3 innings on the mound. His at-times dominant performances garnered compliments from coaches across the 7A-West, who called Roach “by far the best pitcher” their team faced.

Roach also batted cleanup for the Bulldogs, hitting .305 with 14 RBIs, 14 runs scored and a .421 on-base percentage. His contributions on the mound, at the plate and in the field at third base when he wasn’t pitching were a big part of the reason Springdale made the state tournament for the first time since 2007. He earned all-state and all-conference recognition while leading wins over Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber late in the season to help secure the tournament berth.

Summer ball starts soon, but Roach found a new home at Springdale this year. Doty and the Bulldogs are glad it happened.

-Jimmy Carter

BASEBALL COACH OF THE YEAR

MOE HENRY, SHILOH CHRISTIAN

As the postseason approached, Moe Henry really didn’t know what to expect from his baseball team. The third-year Shiloh Christian coach saw his team enter the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, although the Saints were co-champions of the 4A-1 Conference.

The team advanced to the finals of the district tournament, where they were torched for 16 runs by Pea Ridge, a game Henry likened to a softball game.

Maybe that was a wake-up call, because over the rest of the postseason through regional and state tournament play, Shiloh Christian pitchers gave up three runs — total. Five times Saints pitchers threw shutouts, including a 1-0 gem in the 4A state championship against Ashdown.

“Our pitching was phenomenal, but our defense was also great,” Henry said of the late surge. “After the district final, there was some concern. We did not expect that game to go that way, giving up that many runs. I think in conference we’d only given up like three runs combined.

“So we were like, ‘Where are we, really?’ Then we go into regionals and all the conference teams are getting beat. So after we beat Ozark (2-0) in the first game of regionals, a game that could have come down to a play or two, we felt like we were back playing the way we needed to play.”

The shutout of Ozark started one of the most impressive pitching performances in state tournament history as the Saints did not allow a single run in three straight state tournament games, capped by state tournament MVP Gunner Gilbert’s gem in the finale.

-Chip Souza

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