Baseball wisdom goes that a club with arms on the mound and in the bullpen always has a chance to win.
And so it went for the Henderson Flash this summer. Both manager J.D. Arndt and club president Clay Bolin say the club’s pitching was the reason it was finally able to get over the hump and bring home an Ohio Valley League championship.
Arndt said that while most teams’ pitching staffs carry ERAs from the mid-3s to the high-4s, the Flash staff this summer was at a 2.9 ERA.
“You got to have a dude on the mound,” Arndt said.
“Our pitching carried us all summer,” Bolin said. “Our pitching was unbelievable all summer. I knew we were going to be hard to beat in a 3-game series.”
The Flash capped off their first OVL championship season by beating the Fulton Railroaders 2-1 in the 3-game set. The final game played Sunday evening after a rain delay at Park Field saw the local team win 3-0.
In the semifinals, the Flash won another series 2-1, this one over the Paducah Chiefs.
The regular season didn’t go as Bolin had planned. He and Arndt had put together one of the most talented teams Bolin says he had been a part of with the Flash. But numerous players—some Bolin expected to be standouts for this group—weren’t able to report on time, which not only kept key players out of the lineup but also hurt the team’s depth.
The team was six games back when it got its full roster.
“But I knew we had a good team,” Bolin said.
Flash posted a 14-11 record in June, which included a 4-game skid in the middle of the month. The club was 22-17 going into the playoffs, finishing with a 26-19 final tally.
Bolin said the team was pressing too much early in the season, and it was during this time, he spoke with them about not worrying about winning titles but just playing their best baseball.
The championship continues an early tradition established at Park Field. The Flash have won the northern division of the OVL in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, but fell short in the postseasons.
Flash players also earned individual honors this summer. Infielder Logan Lacey won the OVL’s Cubb Stokes award as the leagues’ offensive MVP. Pitcher Logan Haslem, who got the victory in the final game, won the league’s Gordon Guess award for the most valuable pitcher.
Arndt said the Flash’s consistent success, including this year, goes to the players. He said you have to get the right players who really love to play because over the summer, they’re playing every day and taking long bus rides to play. This year’s team was no exception.
“We had a good grind-it-out team,” Arndt said.
Arndt also said he plays all his players, which increases team camaraderie as they all cheer for each other, and it was no different this year.
Finally, there’s a culture that’s been established with the Flash, so much so that former players want to come back and lead the new guys, which was what happened this year with Haslem and Lacey, the coach said.
The culture extends back to some of the early Flash players, evidenced by the numerous text messages Arndt said he received from them after winning the championship.
Bolin said the championship will help the organization continue to grow, helping with recruiting, and both attracting host families and sponsors.
He said he’s also looking to increase the number of people helping him run the organization, which is growing in such a way that he’s going to need more hands.
Bolin said, finally, he’s deeply indebted to the families that host Flash players each summer.
“Without the host families, there is no Flash,” he said.
Arndt, who is the all-time winningest coach in the OVL and has coached for decades at the professional, college and high school levels, said the key to all his success, including Flash success, comes down to building relationships with players, which he and Bolin strive to do.
Arndt, who has just been named the interim baseball coach at Henderson County High School, said he’ll be back with the Flash next summer.
“I’m happy to be a part of it,” he said. “I think we’re still up and coming.”
