B

RUTLEDGE – Tuesday’s game between Grainger and Greeneville featured two of the best pitchers in East Tennessee.

The Grizzlies’ Brady Smith and Greeneville’s Parker Shipley battled all day long and combined for 30 strikeouts but in the end, it was the Greene Devils’ hurler who got the better of the matchup as his team prevailed 2-0.

Smith had 16 strikeouts, three walks and one earned run. He threw 120 pitches with 87 being strikes. Shipley threw 87 pitches with 70 being strikes which included 14 strikeouts to go along with six hits and just one walk. “Parker is a really good pitcher and is very underrated,” Grainger head coach Garrett Yates said of the Greene Devils’ pitcher. “He’s a pitcher, not just a thrower and did a really good job. Brady carved them up and did what Brady does but the game came down to executing small ball. They put pressure on our defense and we made some mistakes and didn’t execute our small ball. That’s what it came down to.”

The game flew by with both pitchers mowing down the competition through the first four innings. In the fifth, Smith got into a bit of a jam as he walked Corbin Cannon and Maddox Bishop but was able to get out of the two-out jam as he fanned his counterpart Shipley on a 3-2 count which was Smith’s 11th K of the day.

Greeneville finally broke through in the sixth when Colton Richards laced a one-out double to right field and then scored on Carson Norris’ RBI single to center field to make it 1-0. Grainger had a chance to tie things up in the home half of the sixth when Smith doubled on the first pitch he saw from Shipley and then Landon Dalton singled to center field. Both were stranded, however, as Shipley got three outs to get out of the inning.

The Greene Devils added an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Will Harmon singled to center field and Cannon reached on an error. Bishop got on board via a fielders choice when Harmon slid under the tag at home plate to make the score 2-0. After 120 pitches, Smith was replaced by Brayden Christian who got a strikeout for the third out. Grainger wasn’t able to rally in the bottom of the seventh as the Greene Devils prevailed 2-0.

Errors continue to be a problem for the Grizzlies. With the three mistakes they made in Tuesday’s game, Grainger has now committed 14 errors in the last three games, all Grizzly losses. “Monday’s game kind of snow-balled on us as we made a couple of errors and then it gets in your head and it becomes a mental thing,” Yates said of the recent slumping defense by his team. “With Brady pitching, it’s like we don’t expect the other team to hit the ball and when they do, we are surprised. We have to get out of that mentality really quick or it’s not going to be a fun year.”

One bright spot on Tuesday was the play of Dalton who went 3-for-3 at the plate. The senior catcher has been knocking the cover off the ball lately and Yates said that was something he was glad to see. “Landon is doing a good job for us at the plate and also behind the plate. He is working his tail off behind the plate and is the only catcher we have now. It’s good to see the success he has had at the plate with a good approach and he has done everything he is supposed to do.”

The Grizzlies hit the road for a game at Pigeon Forge on Thursday.