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ROGERSVILLE – Grainger had their offense in tune Tuesday afternoon as they had 16 hits in an 11-4 win over Cherokee.

The 16 hits was the second most of the season and helped propel the Grizzlies to a sweep of the two-game series with the Chiefs which puts Grainger in second place in the district standings behind league-leading Greeneville.

“I think that might be more than we had all last week,” Grainger head coach Garrett Yates said of the 16 hits on the night, second only to the 17 they had earlier in the season against Cumberland County. “The bats come out big tonight and I think we woke up a little bit today. These past few weeks, especially when Brady pitched, we have not hit the ball and hopefully the good swings we had today will continue.”

“This was a huge series for us and today was a big, big baseball game,” Yates said of the key district wins. “We learned a little bit and came out on top. Hopefully this will give us some confidence going into next week as we go back around with Greeneville and Claiborne.”

Bryaden Christian went 3-for-4 with four runs, Ryland Burchett was also 3-for-4 as was Brady Smith who drove in four runs on his three hits. Braylnn Sell had three RBIs for Grainger on the day. Trever Johnson picked up the win on the mound as he went five innings with two earned runs, two walks and five strikeouts. Christian tossed the final two innings with no earned runs, two walks and four K’s. Cherokee was paced by Aiden Webb who went 2-for-3 with an RBI on a homer. Cole Putnal was 2-for-3 with a double for the Chiefs.

“I’m proud of the pitching as Trever is basically throwing on one leg with a really bad high ankle sprain,” Yates said of Johnson’s performance in Tuesday’s game. “I think he is throwing at like 60 percent right now and he gutted it out for us which was huge against a very, very good team. Cherokee is a really good team.”

“We are doing good things this year and we have been here before and we keep battling,” Cherokee head coach Drew Patterson said. “I think we are a good team and I still like our chances. We are a team that is growing and will keep growing as we have a couple of seniors who are really leading the way. We have a youthful group as tonight we started two freshmen. At the end of the day, we just keep grinding and get better.”

Grainger scored first in the first on Sell’s sac fly to right that scored Christian. Cherokee answered in the bottom of the opening inning when Parker Travis reached on an error that allowed Webb to score. The Grizzlies had a big second inning as they scored three runs. Smith hit a bases-loaded single to left to bring in Burchett and Kade Lucas. Sell scored Christian again, this time on a groundout as the Grizz went up 4-1.

After Lucas’ single scored Connor May in the top of the third, the Chiefs got one run closer in the home half of the inning when Will Price singled in Webb. In the fifth, Webb went yard for a solo shot to make the score 5-3 but Grainger answered with four runs of their own in the sixth. Sell had yet another RBI of Christian and Landon Dalton’s double brought Smith in. Jaxon Maxey, we had the game-winning hit in Monday’s contest, picked up an RBI with a single to center and Isaiah Kyle came home from third on a stolen base attempt to push the Grainger lead to 9-3.

The final score for the Chiefs came in the sixth when Jacob Brooks scored on a Garrett Lawson double. Grainger capped the scoring in the top of the seventh frame when Smith smacked a two-run double to produce the 11-4 final.

Grainger travels to Church Hill Wednesday afternoon for the makeup of a postponed game against Volunteer.