BASEBALL, Western Reserve NICK ALLISON

It’s been quite a year for senior Nick Allison.

Along with being a Division VII All-Ohio quarterback, Allison shined on the diamond as well for the Western Reserve Blue Devils.

He started the season undefeated, giving up very few runs in the process.

“My fastball, that was my key pitch,” Allison said. “My splitter was doing good and my curveball has improved a lot over the last couple years. That was working good too.”

With Allison dominating often, Western Reserve still found itself around the .500 mark early in the season.

“We struggled early on,” Allison said. “Then the seniors talked and said ‘Hey, we need to fix this thing. We’re going to win the rest of these games.’”

From there, the Blue Devils found the winning formula and went on a 15-game winning streak heading into the Division IV state semifinals.

“Playing [down] in Columbus and playing up at Lorain, it was just a lot of fun,” Allison said.

Allison got the call in the semi-final game despite having some elbow soreness in the latter half of the season. That injury finally caught up to him against perennial state power Newark Catholic, which handed him his only loss of the season.

“They’re a really good team; we knew what we were getting into,” Allison said. “They got some key hits with runners on.”

Although the season didn’t end the way Allison was hoping it would, the senior was thrilled to be a key member of two teams that made runs to the state semifinals.

“Coming from such a small school, that doesn’t happen that often,” Allison said. “To make it to the final four in two sports and to be one of leaders on those teams, it was really fun and a great experience.”

Allison said he will miss the time he spent playing sports at Western Reserve.

“The last four years have been a huge experience,” Allison said. “Baseball we won the league twice. Sports have been a huge part of my life.”