P-J file photo by Scott Reagle

Tucker Fenton was named a Second Team selection to the All-Western New York Small School Baseball team.

As a designated hitter.

It was quite a choice for the Maple Grove senior, and an ironic one, because opponents across Chautauqua County feared the 6-foot-4 right-hander most when he was on the mound for the Red Dragons.

The St. Bonaventure commit’s hitting statistics were impressive.

Hit numbers from the mound?

Unbelievable.

Fenton made just four starts during the regular season for Maple Grove — he missed time with an illness — and was practically unhittable.

He faced 97 batters in 25 innings and struck out 66 of them.

He walked 19 batters and allowed just one hit.

One.

Two of the batters to reach base against him were picked off.

None of them scored.

In the Red Dragons’ Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 season opener against Brocton on April 6, Fenton threw five innings of no-hit ball and walked five while striking out 13 in an 8-0 victory. Teammate Kolden McCall finished off the one-hitter with a pair of scoreless innings.

Due to Maple Grove’s two-week spring break, Fenton didn’t pitch again until April 30. On that day he threw his first no-hitter of the season, a 104-pitch 17-strikeout performance against Pine Valley during which he walked four and picked off two base runners after reaching first base.

On April 25, Fenton toed the rubber for a league showdown in Clymer with the Wolfpack, which Maple Grove led after a couple of innings.

Mother Nature then took over, suspending the game.

Two weeks later, Fenton and the Red Dragons finished the 9-1 victory. The right-hander threw a one-hitter with 18 strikeouts while walking seven.

An illness kept Fenton out of the lineup for a few games during Maple Grove’s second turn through the league schedule.

He returned May 17 against Westfield, then started his fourth game of the season May 19 at Frewsburg. He threw his second no-hitter of the year that afternoon at the Jackson Sports Complex, striking out 18 Bears while walking three in a 7-0 win.

At the plate, Fenton had 14 hits in 36 at-bats, four of which were home runs and one that was a double. He drove in 16 runs, scored 16 runs and stole 14 bases. He also walked seven times and was hit by a pitch once.

For dominating local high school hitters from the mound like no one else in recent memory — and also doing his part at the plate — Fenton is the 2022 Post-Journal Player of the Year.