photo by: Kim North

Barton lefty Hunter Hoffman works to the plate Sunday against Maynard as the Ohio Valley Baseball League opened the 2025 season on Henning Field inside Pramesa Park in Crescent.

CRESCENT — It didn’t take long for Hunter Hoffman to make an impact in his Ohio Valley Baseball League debut Sunday – 1-hour and 27-minutes to be exact.

The St. Clairsville graduate and sophomore-to-be at Walsh University went the distance on the mound in pitching Barton to a 1-0 victory over rival Maynard in the season-opener on sun-filled Henning Field inside Pramesa Park.

“Coming off my first college season, I didn’t really have any nerves today,” Hoffman admitted. “It was my first start since American Legion ball, but once I found my groove I felt pretty good.”

Hoffman worked 25 innings for the Cavaliers this spring, mainly in the long reliever/closer role.

“I finished with a good ERA and had a really good year,” he said. “I was getting a lot of soft contact and soft outs. That’s something that’s hard to do at the college level, so you need a 4-or-5 pitch arsenal to keep the batters on their toes and guessing at what’s coming.

“I added a slider while I was at college,” the lefty added. “It’s my 0-2 pitch now. That and my changeup. They were both working today.”

The hard-throwing southpaw needed 100 pitches – 69 strikes – in blanking the Indians on just three hits – all singles, including two in the seventh. He got a strikeout – his ninth – for the second out and a fly ball to left to end things. He got ahead 0-1 on 19 of the 26 Indians he faced.

“My arm feels good, but I’m definitely not used to throwing 100 pitches. I trusted myself there at the end. My catcher (Zach Smith) and I had a good thing going between us. The last kid was battling, but we got the job done.”

Veteran Barton manager Billy Timko was thrilled with Hoffman’s performance, which included one walk and a hit batter.

“Wow. He called me earlier this spring and told me he wanted to come to Barton and win a (OVBL) championship,” Timko said. “The way he pitched today, we just might.”

Barton scored the game’s lone run in the bottom of the fifth. Colten Coss walked with one out and went to second when Cooper Blackburn was hit with a pitch from Maynard reliever Kieran Flanigan. Jake Winland laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt but was safe at first when nobody covered the bag to load the bases. Sy Howell sent the first pitch he saw to left that was deep enough to get Coss home, but seconds later Blackburn was thrown out trying for third to end the inning.

“That was a good call by (third base coach) Nick (Koval) on the bunt,” Timko praised.

“It was a very well pitched game on both sides,” Timko added. “I thought their two pitchers pitched well.”

Former Bridgeport and West Liberty ace Parker Dyson went the first three frames in his Maynard debut. The Columbus resident threw 63 pitches, with 35 going for a strike, in his first mound appearance – competitively – in nearly seven years. He and Flanigan combined to allow just four singles.

Bethany 5, Weirton 3

BETHANY – The Brewers defeated the visiting A’s at Bethany Park on the campus of Bethany College in a battle of teams making their return to the league after several years absence.

Nick Leonard picked up the mound win and Russell Schwertfeger had a two-run triple.