Middle school Pioneers fall in 8 innings
Warren County Middle School’s baseball season came to an end Saturday night, with a pool-play loss to Goodpasture in the 2003 Tennessee Middle School Baseball State Invitational Tournament.
The Pioneers’ Derrin Rogers dueled against the Cougars’ Logan Darnell for the full seven innings of regulation play, but the Cougars got their bats going in extra innings, scoring four runs in the eighth to take the 4-0 victory.
Rogers worked 7-2/3 innings, allowing five hits and one walk. He hit two batters, and struck out one.
All four Goodpasture runs were unearned, as a dropped fly ball in left put Josh Snyder on to start the inning. With one out, Darnell doubled down the left field line, putting runners at second and third, and Tyler Lovell walked to load the bases.
Rogers struck out Ryan Hanson for the inning’s second out, but Coleman Stroud came through for the Cougars with a two-run single to center field. Lovell scored on a passed ball, making it a 3-0 game, and Stroud came in on a single by Ross Moffitt that chased Rogers from the mound in favor of Justin Fults, who got the Pioneers out of the inning.
Darnell finished what he started, walking one batter but retiring the other three Pioneers in the bottom of the eighth to seal the win and prevent WCMS from reaching Sunday’s semifinal round.
The Pioneers were slated to take on West Wilson after the Goodpasture loss, and built a 4-0 early lead before play was stopped in the third due to heavy fog.
Chase Basham and Levi Bain reached on back-to-back bunt singles to start the first, and Rogers walked to load the bases. Basham scored on a wild pitch, while Bain was driven in on a Nick Williams bases-loaded walk and Rogers scored when Justin Bouldin was hit by a pitch.
After Buzz Crowder retired the Wildcats in the bottom of the first, Bain walked in the top of the second and scored on a wild pitch.
Crowder fanned the first two batters he faced in the second, and Basham came on in relief to retire West Wilson’s final batter. In the third, Matt Shields led off with a single and stole second, then Bouldin drew a walk before the game’s officials halted play.