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After the top of the first inning on Thursday night at Sherwood Park, it looked as though Morristown East was well on its way to another baseball loss.

Visiting Chuckey-Doak took advantage of three East errors to score six unearned runs in the first and most Hurricanes fans were probably thinking ‘here we go again’.

But that certainly wasn’t the case as Coach J. D. Newsom’s team battled back to tie the score after four innings and then scored seven times in the fifth on its way to a 15-7 victory, their first after 10 losses to open the season.

East had some very timely hits and took advantage of their scoring chances to rack up the win. The Black Knights fell to 5-4 for the season.

“In the top of the first inning, we played about as bad as we could possibly play,” said Newsom. “And then, we started playing ball. The difference in today and what had been happening to us was what I’ve been preaching the whole time…overcoming the adversity. Don’t let it get you down and tonight, they didn’t.

Newsom continued, “The kids were mad at themselves but they weren’t down. They came in and put up two in the first and started chipping away at the lead. We didn’t give up and we kept battling back until we got it tied and then we had a big inning.

“I’m extremely proud of the guys and it’s great to see them get a win,” he said.

Isaac Greene was the starter for the Hurricanes and also wound up as the closer. He should have been on the bench getting ready to bat after the first three batters in the first but wound up not finishing the inning.

Jonah Carden came on and gave up just one run in pitching through the fifth. Greene then returned to the mound for the final two frames to nail down the win.

Newsom said it was a unique situation. “Jonah came in there and did a great job in his first varsity action of the year. We made sure it was legal to bring Isaac back to the mound to finish up and that’s what we decided to do. He wanted it and came back and got those last six outs for us.

“We had timely hits. Lane Grizzell had a big hit when we scored three times to tie it and Ethan Shockley and Eli Seals had huge hits in our big fifth inning. Hopefully, this win will get us started in the right direction after several tough losses.”

Shockley, Grizzell and Greene all had two hits for the Hurricanes. Shockley’s three-run double capped the fifth inning. Grizzell had his second double and scored the final run in the bottom of the sixth.

Carden got the mound decision over Dillion Shelton who was the second of four pitchers for the Black Knights.

Carden gave up four hits and one run while walking four and striking out five in his 4.3 innings. In his two trips to the mound, Greene allowed just two hits and the six unearned runs. He walked six and struck out three.

Christian Derry and Cadin Tullock had two hits each for Chuckey-Doak with each of them having a hit in the big first inning.

Greene had the only safety as East got two in the first. Brice Epps reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Connor Southard to get the ‘Canes within 6-3 in the second.

Both teams scored once in the third. East got its run when Greene singled and scored on a hit by Shockley.

Grizzell started the tying rally in the fourth with a two-out double. Carson Winstead and Greene both walked with two runs scoring on wild pitches before another came across when Seals got on by an error.

Carden set the Black Knights down in order in the top of the fifth and East went to work at the plate. Carden started it with a single before the next batter popped up.

Blake Creech and Southard walked to load the bases and the first run scored when Grizzell grounded to third and the ball was thrown away in trying to get the runner at the plate. Winstead walked to force in a run and Greene got on by error as another scored.

Seals had a base hit to right and then Shockley doubled to left-center field to clear the bases and make it 14-7. Grizzell supplied the final marker in the sixth.