ELIZABETHTON – The Chuckey-Doak baseball team found the offense it has been searching for over the past two weeks and kept its season alive on Friday night by taking down Happy Valley 7-2 in the District 1-2A Tournament.
“I’m just happy to get a win. At this time of the year it doesn’t matter how you do it, you just have to score more runs than the other team,” Chuckey-Doak coach Jacob Willett said. “The offense trended in the right direction today, and hopefully that continues to get better. We had more hits than we had yesterday, and tomorrow we need more than we had today. If we get that we’ll get to keep playing.”
Friday’s win sets up a rematch with West Greene on Saturday in Elizabethton. The two teams will play at 1 PM in the losers’ bracket finals with a berth in the district championship game and appearance in next week’s region tournament on the line. The last time they met on Wednesday West Greene won 5-0. The District championship game versus Unicoi County is scheduled for 3:30 PM on Saturday.
“We have to find a way to score more than West Greene tomorrow, because its win or go home, there is no in between,” Willett said. “We have show up and play baseball. We have to hit it. We have to play clean defense, and whoever is on the mound has to fill it up.”
The Black Knights started fast on Friday and jumped out to a 3-0 win on Friday. Kiptyn Ball was walked and Randall Sauceman was hit by a pitch. Lynkin Cutshaw then breathed some life into the entire Chuckey-Doak dugout when he slammed a double deep into centerfield to score the first run of the evening.
The Black Knights had been struggling at the plate over their last five games, and Cutshaw’s big swing seemed to break the ice and get everything going in the right direction.
“You have no idea how good it felt to see that hit,” Willett said. “After the last couple of games to get that swing in that moment was huge. That opened us up for a couple of big innings to start the game.”
Braxton Lowe sent a challenging chopper to the shortstop that forced a rushed throw. The ball missed its target and skipped out of play to allow two more runs to cross the plate safely.
Chuckey-Doak’s lead grew to 5-0 in second inning on monstrous swing by Gavin Crum. Shane Cook led off the side by lining a single through the left side. Dom Atchison was walked and Ball laid down a bunt single to load the bases.
Crum stepped into the box next and burned the defense with a fly ball that landed just short of the deep left field fence. Cook and Atchison both scored on the play.
Happy Valley got on the board in the in the top of the third inning. Ty Johnson started things by sending a double down the right field line. Mikey Hampton scored him with a groundball to the right side.
The Warriors put two more runners in scoring position in the frame, but Ball ended the side with a strikeout.
Ball was tough to handle on Friday, throwing seven innings with seven strikeouts, one walk and five hits allowed.
“Kiptyn is a competitor, and that’s why he got the ball today. He competes as hard as any kid I’ve coached and this is the type of game you want him in,” Willett said.
Chuckey-Doak’s lead grew to 7-1 in the third inning. The side started with Lowe sending a groundball to the shortstop. The throw came down the first-base line and led to Lowe colliding with the tag. The ball came loose and Johnson expressed a level of displeasure with the play that resulted in his ejection.
Next up Benjamin Palazzo blasted a ball deep into the right-center gap that scored Lowe from first. As the defense chased the ball to the wall Palazzo showed off his motor and safely landed on third. Ball sent a line drive to right field to knock in the Knights’ seventh run.
Chuckey-Doak managed just one more hit the rest of the night, but the defense played well enough to preserve the win.
The Black Knights finished with seven hits on Friday. Ball led that effort by going 3-for-3. Palazzo had a triple, Cutshaw had a double and Crum had two RBIs.
UNICOI COUNTY 9, WEST GREENE 4
The West Greene baseball team started Friday afternoon well, but ultimately could not keep up with Unicoi County in the winners’ bracket finals of the District 1-2A Tournament, falling 9-4 in Elizabethton.
“I’m disappointed to lose, but there are some positives we can take from it,” West Greene coach Adrian Sauceman said. “We had a plan pitching wise, and some parts went according to plan and others didn’t. Now its all about getting ready for tomorrow.”
The Buffaloes came into Friday knowing they were one win away from advancing to the Region 1-2A Tournament. That is still the case, but now they have to take on Chuckey-Doak at 1 PM on Saturday in an elimination game. The winner will advance to the district championship game and the regional, the loser will conclude it season.
“We have to bring energy back here tomorrow,” Sauceman said. “We played Chuckey-Doak on Wednesday with a lot of energy and that was probably the best game we have played all year. We have to come out ready to go. It’s do or die time. We’ve been in this situation a lot over the last couple of years and hopefully we can lean on that experience.”
The Blue Devils started the day with an unearned run in the first inning. Kolby Jones reached on a misplayed ball to third base, and scored from third when Hudson Berry sent a ball into the gap on the left side.
West Greene was able to go in front 2-1 in the third inning. Ethan Carpenter walked to start the side. Jhonen Bath then hit a potential double play ball to the shortstop that was booted allowing both runners to reach safely.
Carter Stills knocked in Carpenter with a line drive through the right side. Bath then scored on a balk.
In the bottom of the third Unicoi tied the game at 2-2. Reid Bogart got a leadoff single to land in right field, and scored on a groundout by Broox Bennett.
The Blue Devils scored three runs in the fourth inning to go in front 5-2. Alex Lannigan reached on an error and went to third on another error trying to catch him stealing second.
Tanner White put Unicoi in front with a groundout, and Jones used a single to knock in the next run. With two outs Isaac Harris got a single through the left side to knock in Jones.
Unicoi County used three hits to score four more runs in the fifth inning as the lead reached 9-2.
In the seventh inning West Greene closed the gap to 9-4. Carpenter walked, Bath sent a single to right field and Jayden Cox reached on a bunt single that loaded the bases. Carpenter and Bath each scored on a ground out.
West Greene earned seven hits on Friday. Bath was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Cox was 2-for-4 with a double, and Stills had two RBIs.
The Buffaloes used four different arms in the loss. Eli Brown took the loss in 2 1/3 relief innings. He walked one and allowed three hits.
Bronson Brown started the game and went 2 1/3 innings in two stints. He struck out none, walked none and allowed five hits.
