Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Marshall Meade, center, is congratulated by his Shamrock teammates after knocking in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh Monday against Union Local. Barnesville won 9-8 after trailing 7 -0.

BARNESVILLE — During their three-year baseball careers, Barnesville’s senior class has not lost to western Belmont County rival Union Local. They kept that trend going on opening day Monday.

The debuting Shamrocks capped a mammoth rally with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to walk-off the Jets, 9-8, in a thriller at chill-filled Memorial Park.

The hosts trailed 7-0 after two innings before pecking away with a run in the third, four in the fourth and another in the sixth.

“Our bats got warm and we started seeing some better pitches,” veteran Barnesville head coach D.J. Butler said. “We had better approaches at the plate as the game went on. I couldn’t be more happy, even if we don’t get those runs to win it, with our effort.”

Senior Marshall Meade, who started on the mound but didn’t make it out of the third, sent the Barnesville faithful home happy when he grounded a bases-loaded single up the middle to score Jack Anderson with the game-winner.

“I did everything I could to keep us from losing to our rivals,” Meade said. “I haven’t lost to them during my career and it wasn’t going to happen today.”

Down to their final out, the Shamrocks, who could only muster four hits in the first six frames, collected five singles in their last at-bat. Caden Sellers reached on an infield single to third before Blake Burkhart singled to left. Anderson’s infield single off the foot of Union Local pitcher Colby Carpenter loaded the bases and Max Miller tied the game with a two-run base hit to right. After Brayden Watters was hit with a pitch, Meade came through in the clutch.

“I wasn’t really looking for any certain pitch,” Meade said. “I was hitting anything.”

Butler said Miller’s hit was the key.

“He had hit the ball really hard two times prior with nothing to show for it, but he made up for those with one swing,” the coach allowed. “He’s been good for us since he was a sophomore.

“Some of our guys were playing varsity baseball for the first time, and I think some of our nerves showed when we got a little rattled,” Butler said when the Jets sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven times in the second. “You could see some youth and inexperience coming out, but I can’t fault that effort.

Butler also praised the relief effort by senior Cam Carpenter, who took over the Meade in the third and pitched through the sixth. He struck out two and walked three but only gave up one run.

“Cam was able to come in and keep us close,” Butler said. “He did a good job.”

Junior Keegan Martin pitched the seventh to earn the win. He fanned one.

“Keegan is the master of picking up come-from-behind wins on the mound,” Butler noted.”That’s a good omen for him.”

Union Local (2-1) tasted defeat for the first time after opening with wins over Coshocton and Maysville..

“Obviously, we had the momentum early,” Union Local head coach Jim Hess said. “We still hit the ball hard during the middle innings, but they all seemed to be right at a Barnesville player. We got the first two outs in the seventh and we couldn’t make a play. We softened up a little there and we’ve got to be able to finish off games like that.

“We’ve got to learn from tonight because we are right back at it against them in two days.”

Burkhart was the lone Shamrock with two hits — both singles. Casey Carpenter had a double.

Union Local received two singles, a double and an RBI from Konnor Kovac. Hayden Jenkins singled thrice and drove in two runs. Billy Schumacher had a two-run double in the seven-run second.