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Gallery by Heather Belcher
Thursday night at the inaugural 2024 All-Coalfield Senior Stars Showcase, Summers County standout Ben Lane stole the show – literally.
Swiping four bases, including a steal of home, and scoring three times, Lane led the South All-Stars to a 12-9 win over the North All-Stars at Linda K. Epling Stadium.
PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt guided the South and talked about having such a talented group of players on the field together wearing the same uniform.
“It is just an absolute blessing to be around these kids that I have seen for the last four years, having to coach against them,” Wyatt said. “They are so competitive and to have them on your side is so much fun. I would love to do this every night.”
The Southern All-Stars took the early 2-0 lead in bottom of the first inning on RBI singles from Lane and Davis Rockness from Bluefield.
Shady Spring all-stater Jake Meadows made it a 3-0 game with an RBI in the third frame before things unraveled for the South an inning later.
Aided by three walks, the North all-stars hung five on board to take a two-run lead after four innings.
Chase Tolliver from Beckley, Braydon McClung from Greenbrier West and Gabe Patton from Greenbrier East each drove in one run to help the cause.
Unfortunately for the northerners, they returned the generosity in the bottom of the fifth.
A one-out single from Jared Vestal along with a pair of critical errors by the North pushed two runs across to tie the game 5-5.
All was quiet until the bottom of the seventh inning when Lane went to work, giving the South All-Stars a lead they never relinquished.
Working a walk to open the at-bat, Lane stole second and third base before scoring on a passed ball for a 6-5 lead.
“Small ball is a lot of fun for us. We have played it a lot since my freshman year because we haven’t really had a bunch of power hitters,” the Summers County star said. “I have had to get really good at stealing bases. Me and (teammate) Brandan (Isaac) both have. Speed can change the game as long as you are smart with what you do.”
In the eighth inning the South erupted for six runs to put the game virtually out of reach.
Princeton standout Lucas Monaghan smacked a lead-off single and later scored when a base knock from Meadows was mishandled in the outfield.
Seniors Bryson Redmond from Bluefield, Sammy Lyle from PikeView and Cooper Ridgeway from James Monroe added the North’s misery by each driving a run before Lane stepped in a poured salt in the wound.
After driving in his second run of the game, the Bobcat speedster worked his way to third base.
From there, Lane did the unthinkable.
“In the moment I seen that the kid was pitching from the wind-up. I knew I was pretty fast,” Lane said. “I ask coach (Wyatt) if he cared if I tried to steal home. He asked me if I thought I could do it. I said, Oh yeah. I was there before the ball even got there.”
Having stole home in a regular season game, Lane capped his high school baseball career fittingly with a theft of the toughest base in the game.
“Sometimes a little crazy can get you some help too. In high school baseball, people make errors and people make mistakes,” Lane said. “You take your chances and get what you get sometimes.”
Wyatt had the bird’s eye view of the play from the third base coaching box.
“I knew he could do it. I have been around the kid enough and his instincts are phenomenal,” Wyatt said. “He has that about him and he is a ball of energy.”
The North squad did not go quietly into the night scoring four runs in the ninth before Meadows came in and closed the door on the win.
Standout catchers Grayson Kesterson from Nicholas County and Blake Stratton from Independence, along with McClung had an RBI in the outburst.
Lane was named the MVP for the South All-Stars, while Patton was named MVP for the North All-Stars.
After the game, Meadows was awarded a scholarship as the Offensive Player of the Year in the Coalfield Conference. Cole Brown was awarded a scholarship as the Conference Pitcher of the Year.
