Mitchell, Haston lead way against Lebanon
Warren County finished 3-for-3 in a busy week of District 7-AAA baseball action, downing Lebanon for the second straight night Thursday.
Jake Mitchell came through with a 3-for-4 night, driving in two runs and scoring another, and pitcher Joey Haston fanned 10 Blue Devil batters as the Pioneers scored a 7-3 win.
“It’s been a great week for us. We needed this,” said WCHS coach Jimmy Walker, whose team improved to 9-8 overall and 4-2 in district play. “As a team we’re relaxed, we’re having fun, and the kids came out and played well for us.”
On a wet, slick field, the Pioneers’ defense struggled early, allowing two unearned runs on a hit and three errors in the first. But Derek Kennamer led off the WCHS half of the inning with a single, scoring on a Glenn Rogers double, then Rogers came in to tie the game on a Mitchell double to center field.
“Starting out I thought ‘here we go again,’ but they pulled things together,” Walker said. “Joey threw strikes, and we hit the ball.”
Kennamer also finished 3-for-4, scoring two runs, while Rogers was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs. Daniel Owens and Zach Pelham also had hits, while Scott Dunham scored a run and drove in another.
“I had a feeling we were going to hit today, you could just get a sense of it coming out of the clubhouse,” Walker said. “Everybody was relaxed, they’re up there swinging, and they’re making things happen at the plate.”
Lebanon (6-12, 1-5) took a brief 3-2 lead in the third, but the Pioneers countered with two runs in their half of the inning on two hits, and Haston fanned six of the next 11 Blue Devil batters he faced to preserve the Pioneers’ advantage.
Haston worked 6-1/3 innings, scattering four hits and walking five while throwing a whopping 129 pitches. None of the three runs scored against him were earned.
Colby Jenkins, who came on after Haston walked two straight batters in the seventh, gave up another free pass to load the bases. But the submariner fanned Lebanon’s Chris Watson, and got Derek Fish to ground out to shortstop to end the game, picking up a save in the process.
The Pioneers competed in a wood bat tournament at Crossville this weekend, and leap back into District 7-AAA play Monday, with a home matchup against Oakland at 6:30 p.m.