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Morristown West moved into a second-place tie in the District Two 4-A baseball race with a 6-3 triumph over cross-town rival East at Sherwood Park Tuesday night.

By beating the Hurricanes for the second straight night, the Trojans improved their record to 4-9 for the season and evened their district worksheet at 3-3. Sevier County is the leader at 6-0 with West and Jefferson County both 3-3. East slipped to 0-6 in the league and is now 2-13 for the season.

East actually out-hit the Trojans by 10-4 but couldn’t come up with the big hit when they really needed it.

Sophomore Cody Blair pitched the first five innings to capture the mound decision over Jonah Carden. Landyn Spencer pitched the final two frames.

Isaac Greene and Carson Winstead also saw mound duty for the Hurricanes.

West got one run in both the first and second innings before pulling away with a three-run third. The Trojans’ final run came in the fourth and upped their lead to 6-0 at the time.

The ‘Canes fought back with a single run in the bottom of the fourth and got a two-run homer off the bat of Carden in the fifth.

East got the first two runners on in the seventh to bring the tying run to the plate but Spencer struck out the next batter and got the next on a fly ball to right before striking out the final man he faced to end it.

Jordan Watson had two hits for the Trojans while Riley short doubled in the first-inning run. Bryson Shepard added a single for West and Gracyn McClanahan knocked in a run when he reached on a fielder’s choice.

Blair allowed all 10 East hits and all three runs while walking one and striking out two. Spencer walked one and fanned four in his two innings of work.

Carden pitched two innings and gave up three hits and two runs. He walked two and struck out two. Greene pitched 1.3 innings and allowed four runs, five bases on balls and fanned one.

Winstead held the Trojans in check as the Hurricanes tried to rally. He went 3.2 on the hill and didn’t give up a hit or run. He walked two and struck out four.

At the plate, Greene, Eli Seals and Brice Epps all had two hits for East.

West coach Justin Pickett said, “We just have to come out here and play and find ways to win. That’s what we did tonight.

“We had a chance to close the door early but we left way too many men on base,” added the coach. “We had the people we wanted at the plate but didn’t get the runs in.”

Pickett continued, “But the pitching was there and the defense was there tonight. I thought we made some good plays and I thought Cody did a really good job on the mound.

“He was outstanding. He came out here and set the tone for us. He threw strikes and let the defense play. He’s a competitor and wants to be in that moment. He caught last night and I think he got a little tired.”

Pickett closed, “We brought Spencer out of the pin and when he settled in he did a great job.

“We should have hit the ball better but give credit to their guys,” said the coach. “They came out here and competed. They made plays and stayed in it and got the home run and they were right back in the game.

“But for us to come over here and find a way to get a W was great. It’s never easy but we did what we had to to get it done.”

East’s J. D. Newsom remarked, “We had opportunities early on in the first and second innings but just couldn’t find the gaps to get the big hit.

“I thought we hit the ball a lot better today but couldn’t get the big one when we needed it. Jonah had a big one but other than that we didn’t hit it well with runners on.

“Our defense was better today but we had the one inning when the kids just lost their minds,” Newsom said. “A couple of their runs were when we should have had the runners out but didn’t get them.”

Newsom said, “Carson came in and did his job to keep us in it. I thought Jonah battled through with it just his second time on the mound since coming back. He’s trying to get a feel out there and he’s on a pitch count because we’re going to need him later on.

“Overall, we had much better approaches at the plate than yesterday. We stayed within ourselves. We had our chances. I thought both teams made some great plays.”

Newsom said, “We need to get a better start. We’re waiting until the third or fourth inning to get going and putting ourselves in a hole. Tonight we just couldn’t recover from it.

“Our kids battled all the way tonight and I was proud of that,” he said. “We’ve got them two more times later on in April and we’ll just see what happens.”

Watson led off the game with a hit, stole second and scored as Short rapped a double to right-center field.

In the second, Paxton Seal was hit by a pitch, Gavin Mitchell walked and Shepard singled to load the bases. McClanahan then grounded to third for a force out with Seal scoring for a 2-0 lead.

The third was the big frame for the Trojans. Watson’s single was the only hit with two walks and two errors as the lead grew to 5-0. Tayshawn Griffin walked to lead off the fourth and Tison Johnson ran for him.

Johnson went to third as Blair reached on an error and scored on Seal’s sacrifice fly to up the margin to 5-0.

East snapped a 10-inning scoreless streak in the bottom of the frame. Winstead had a bunt single with one out and Epps doubled off the fence in left field. After Blair got a strike out, Connor Southard had an infield hit to score the run.

With one out in the fifth, Ethan Shockley had a bad-hop single and Carden smacked a ball into the street in left field for the first home run by an East player this season.

East got the first two men on base in the seventh on an error and a walk but Spencer got the next three hitters to end it.