FDHS alum Chris Huffman named RCBL Pitcher of the Year, but Clover Hill wins league title

Fort Defiance High grad Chris Huffman, a pitcher drafted by the San Diego Padres out of JMU in 2014, had one of the best seasons of his pro career the following year while playing for Single-A Fort Wayne in the Midwest League. He was 9-6 with an ERA 3.28 in 22 games with 18 starts on a 2015 team that included fellow pitcher Michael Kelly, who has pitched the past two seasons in the majors for the A’s, and Jose Castillo, who is with the New York Mets.

A decade later, Huffman – who eventually reached the Triple-A level with San Diego – has become one of the best pitchers in recent memory in the Rockingham County Baseball League, which began in 1924. For the third time in four years, Huffman was named the Pitcher of the Year in the RCBL in 2025. After that, he helped the Bridgewater Reds reach the championship series against Clover Hill, the 2024 champs.

In Game 7 on Sunday night at Buck Bowman Park at Clover Hill – after rain suspended action early in play on Saturday – the host Bucks repeated as RCBL champs with a 6-1 victory as Bridgewater College product Reid Long (four innings pitched, no runs allowed, one hit) and Turner Ashby High grad Tanner Moyers (five innings, one run, three hits) combined to shut down Bridgewater.

It was the 20th title for Clover Hill, the most of any team in the RCBL. Bridgewater is next with 18 titles.

Clover Hill overcame a yeoman effort from Huffman this season.

A 32-year-old right-hander, Huffman in regular season play led the league in wins with five, in innings with 44, WHIP at 0.64 and he was second in ERA at 0.61 and strikeouts with 52. He walked just three batters and allowed just 24 hits – and only two for extra bases as doubles.

In Game 6 of the championship series on Thursday against visiting Clover Hill at Ray Heatwole Field, Huffman pitched nine innings and allowed just one run in a 6-1 win to even the series at 3-3. Huffman fanned 12 and walked just one while throwing 110 pitches – 84 for strikes. He hit a homer in Game 5 against Clover Hill. Pitching with little rest, Huffman came out of the bullpen in Game 7 of the championship series and allowed three earned runs in 4.1 innings of work.

But that did not diminish another strong season by the former Fort star.

“Chris has great stuff on the mound and has elite command, but I think his best attribute is you can just tell he understands how to pitch,” Nolan Potts, the head coach of Massanutten this season in the RCBL, wrote earlier this month to AFP. “He has a plan when he takes the mound, and more times than not, he executes it just how he wants to. Something I noticed this year is that he seemed to be even better when there were guys on base. He didn’t appear to be throwing as hard this year compared to the past couple of seasons, but he can still ramp it up when he wants to.”

In Game 3 on Aug. 10, he pitched eight scoreless innings and allowed six hits with nine strikeouts and two walks as Bridgewater won 5-0 to take a 2-1 series lead.

Huffman played for the Staunton Braves of the Valley Baseball League while at JMU.

“He doesn’t walk guys and challenges you every single at-bat. Since he isn’t walking guys and putting them on for free, you really have to earn your way on base against him, but with the variety of pitches he throws and the ability to throw them all for strikes, it a tough task for hitters,” noted Potts, who guided the Shockers to RCBL titles in 2021 and 2023. “When he takes the mound, you know runs are going to be at a premium, so you have to do everything you can to try to scratch a few across.”

Other RCBL award winners

The MVP (Broadway’s Carl Keenan) and Rookie of the Year (Clover Hill’s Anthony Arrichiello) this season are both products of the strong Division III program at Shenandoah University in Winchester.

The veteran coach at Shenandoah is Kevin Anderson, the former mentor at JMU.

“The one thing I notice about Carl and Anthony is that they play with an edge,” wrote Potts, who also played for Anderson at Shenandoah. “They’re both extremely talented ballplayers, but I can just tell that they’re fierce competitors, and that’s something that’s instilled in you at Shenandoah – that work ethic that requires you to compete day in and day out. You’re taught to win and compete at everything you do and when the scoreboard is on, you’re playing for something. The expectations at SU are high every year, and once you get there and are around Coach Anderson, that desire to win is heightened, and from coaching against them this summer, that winning attitude that they have from school carried over to the RCBL. I’m looking forward to seeing the type of impact they can have for Shenandoah in the spring.”

Arrichiello, for Clover Hill, hit .292 with 19 hits in 19 games, five doubles, and 12 RBI. On the mound, he was 4-0 with a ERA of 1.88 in 24 innings during regular season play. He was second in the league in wins and third in ERA. The lefty was the winning pitcher in Game 5 of the title series on Aug. 13 as he went seven innings and allowed just one run with nine strikeouts as Clover Hill won 14-1 in a game that went seven innings.

“Anthony is a guy I wish I could’ve gotten my hands on and brought him to the Mountaineers, but he’s been a perfect fit for Clover Hill, and a big reason for the success they’ve had this year. He provides them with an athletic outfielder who can hit for power but also someone who can go on the mound and dominate a game. Having someone with that type of versatility and can impact the game in multiple ways is a coach’s dream,” Potts noted.

Keenan was first in the league in batting average (.480), runs (32), hits (36), on-base percentage (.596), and on-base plus slugging percentage at 1.289. He was second in slugging percentage (.693) and walks (22), tied for third in doubles (8), and tied for fourth in stolen bases (13) while hitting first or second in the lineup. He played second base and shortstop.

“Carl has a tremendous baseball IQ and is very instinctive,” Potts wrote. “He always seemed to be on base and causing chaos every time he reached. He was definitely their catalyst at the top of the order, and he put up some great individual numbers for them this summer. I knew even when he was in high school that he was going to be a really productive player as he got older, and he’s battled through some injuries the past couple of years and turned into one of the best players in the RCBL, and was an easy choice for MVP this year.”

Keenan is from Millbrook High in Winchester, while Arrichiello is from New York state. They helped the Hornets of Shenandoah go 28-17 and 14-7 in the ODAC this past spring.

The manager of the year in the RCBL was former Harrisonburg High standout Kevin Chandler, who guided Clover Hill to the regular season and playoff title. Chandler was an All-ODAC selection as a pitcher during his career at Bridgewater College.

Notes

• Michael Kelly, the former minor league teammate of Huffman, made his debut in the Majors with the Philadelphia Phillies, against the Washington Nationals, in 2022.
• Huffman pitched for Triple-A El Paso in the San Diego system in 2018. Some of the past or future Major Leaguers with El Paso that year were outfielder Travis Jankowski, who is from Lancaster, Pa., and has played this season for the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets; catcher Austin Hedges, now with Cleveland; outfielder/infielder Allen Craig, who played in the 2013 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals; and Eric Lauer, a starting pitcher this season for the Toronto Blue Jays.
• Corbin Lucas (Fort Defiance) had two hits in Game 4 of the finals for the Reds and a solo homer in the top of the ninth in Game 7; he played in college at Shenandoah.
• Clover Hill shortstop Isaac Sumpter, from Charlottesville and Western Albemarle High, hit .341 in the regular season. Sumpter, as the leadoff man, went 1-for-1 and drew four walks and scored three times in the Game 5 win in the title series. Sumpter led off and had two hits in Game 7, with a run scored and RBI.
• Clover Hill outfielder Christian Harris, in the Game 5 win 14-1 over Bridgewater, was 3-for-5 with a homer and drove in six runs while scoring three times. Harris is from Amherst and played for Bridgewater College in the spring. He was the final series MVP with two hits in Game 7. The first four hitters in the Clover Hill lineup had two hits in the series finale.
• James River High and ODU product Vinny Pasquantino had two doubles, two homers and nine RBI in a recent three-game series against the Nationals.
• ODU product Justin Verlander recorded his 3,500th career strikeout earlier this month against Washington. But he had just one win in his first 21 starts this season for the San Francisco Giants after going seven scoreless innings without a decision in a 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Aug. 16.
• The Nationals drafted lefty pitcher Ben Moore out of ODU in the 12th round in July and he signed later in the month. As of Aug. 17, he has yet to pitch in pro ball.

David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU (one light-hitting season) and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com. He was the sports editor of the Daily News-Record from 2019-21 and worked for the paper in the 1980s.