Pioneers end skid: Baseball team downs Jets to finish Classic
The Pioneers got back on the winning track the old-fashioned way Sunday.
Using wood bats, Warren County broke out of a five-game losing skid, pounding out eight hits in an 8-1 win over Cumberland County to wrap up the Dr Pepper Classic at Patrick Ramsey Field.
“Coach (Brent) Whitlock had mentioned it Saturday, and we’re playing in a wood bat tournament at Crossville next weekend,” said WCHS coach Jimmy Walker. “So we talked about it with (Cumberland Co. coach ) Dean (Darnell), and decided we’d switch to wood for the last game.
“It must have worked, we swung the bats a lot better, and we even seemed to have a better feel for the ball in the field.”
In addition to turning in more hits than they had in their previous two losses combined, the Pioneers also seemed to break out of a defensive slump in Sunday’s finale, and committed just one error in the six-inning game.
WCHS got things started early, scoring three runs in the first. Derek Kennamer singled, stole second and third, and scored when Jake Mitchell’s grounder was too hot for Cumberland County’s third baseman to handle. Matt Brown drew a walk, stole second, moved to third on Mitchell’s grounder and came home on a while pitch to John Morrison, who drove in Mitchell with a single to left to give WCHS a 3-0 lead.
Kennamer, Scott Dunham and Tyler Herriman scored in the fourth, coming home on a walk, a hit batsman and an error after loading the bases to start the inning.
Cumberland County took advantage of the Pioneers’ lone error to score an unearned run in the sixth, but the Brown and Glenn Rogers came home on a two-run single from Daniel Owens in the bottom of the frame to end the game via the seven-run mercy rule coaches had agreed to implement.
Scott Dunham finished 2-for-3 with a run scored, while Kennamer went 2-for-4, scoring two Pioneer runs. Brown was 1-for-1 with three walks and scored twice, while Owens, Herriman and John Morrison had the Pioneers’ other hits.
Freshman Landon Boren went the distance on the mound, giving up just one unearned run and scattering four hits over six innings, while striking out four batters and hitting one.
“I thought he did a good job,” Walker said of his freshman hurler. “Through six innings he threw just 61 pitches, and he was throwing strikes and they were making plays behind him.
“The secret of pitching — and this is no real secret — is if you stop running the counts full, your defense plays a lot better. Landon doesn’t take a lot of time between pitches, and that’s what we’re trying to teach all our pitchers to do; to work fast, so the defense stays ready.”
Shelbyville 9,
Warren Co. 1
The Pioneers began Sunday’s play on a down note, falling to Shelbyville, which won three of its four games at the Classic.
The Golden Eagles got to starter Joey Haston for three runs in the first inning, two unearned runs in the second and another in the third. Haston was relieved by Tommy Jones, who surrendered three runs in the fifth.
The Pioneers’ only run of the contest came in the bottom of the fifth, when pinch hitter Zach Minton hit a sharp single to right to lead off the frame. Dillon Stephens reached on an error, and Boren brought the run home with a sacrifice bunt.
Nathan Cantrell, Minton, Rogers and Jones had the Pioneers’ only hits in the game.
WCHS was scheduled to play host to White County Tuesday night, and will take on Lebanon on the road today at 6 p.m. Lebanon travels to McMinnville Thursday.