We will never know how the French Camp baseball season would have ended. Region 5-1A champions? State championship?
But we do know how it started – like gangbusters. French Camp was 6-0, averaging more than 10 runs a game when the closing of schools brought the season to an abrupt end. The Panthers were top ranked in the state among 1A schools by the website MaxPreps and ninth among all schools. Six of the eight higher ranked teams are 6A.
“It ended too early,” said coach Nathan Wright. “It’s most disappointing because I have a lot of seniors.”
It did not look good when French Camp suffered 10-0 and 9-0 losses in jamboree games. But once the season began for real, there was no stopping the Panthers
The victories: 17-5 vs. Winona Christian, 11-2 vs. Winona, 3-2 vs. Sebastopol, 20-19 vs. Sebastopol (that is not a typo), 6-0 vs Eupora and 11-0 vs. Winona.
Wright said “The pieces of the puzzle had come together. We were swinging the bat well. We were playing great defense. The pitchers were doing a good job.”
Except for that one wild game, the pitching was solid. But it was offense that was the strong suit, with a .335 team batting average. And it was not one or two players swinging a hot bat. There is a belief in baseball that hitting is contagious. If so, French Camp had an epidemic in the midst of the pandemic.
Sophomore Cody Perry was the leading hitter at .474. He was supported ably by seniors Javen Anderson and Holt Barlow, both at .412, junior Adam Atkins .375, senior Seth Box .368, senior Bradley Edwards .333 and senior Jarren Holmes .294.
Box led the team in homers with four, RBIs with 12, slugging (1,105) and OPS (1.625). He was also the pitching ace with a 3.0 record, 1.37 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 15.1 innings.
