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Bridger Hamilton and Karsen Martin collected three hits apiece Monday night at Sherwood Park as Sevier County handed Morristown East a 9-2 setback to keep the Hurricanes winless.

It was the ninth victory against two losses for the Smoky Bears who are now a perfect 3-0 in District Two 4-A play. It was the ninth straight loss for the Hurricanes who slipped to 0-3 in the district. The same two teams will meet again tonight at Sevier County.

Hamilton clubbed a home run, triple and single for the Bears while Martin added three singles. Andrew Moore chipped in a double as the visitors collected 10 hits.

Winning pitcher Drew Maddox gave the Hurricanes just four hits in notching the mound verdict over Eli Seals.

Maddox walked one and struck out nine in his complete game. Seals threw 5.3 innings for East. He surrendered eight hits and six runs while walking five and striking out four. Lane Grizzell finished up for the ‘Canes.

Sevier coach Casey Taylor said, “Some people thought it was gonna be a blowout but I didn’t see it that way. They made some plays early in the game that kept us from being able to put up several runs on them.

“We’re aware of the situation here,’’ said Taylor. “But I remember the great years they’ve had and know the tradition that exists up here through the years. So if that’s what people were thinking, then shame on them for thinking that. Their kids are working hard and J. D. (Newsom) is a good coach and I feel for them not being able to win.”

The coach went on to say, “I thought Drew threw the ball well. It may not have been his best performance but he was consistent throwing strikes. You know what you’re going to get with him.

“This was the start of a big week for us with the number of games we have and it got it started off on the right foot.”

East’s Newsom also thought his pitcher did a good job. “I told the guys we’re in kind of an in-between stage. We’re not playing bad but we’re not playing great either. We’re definitely not playing the way we are capable of playing.

“Eli did a good job but we need to play well from start to finish,” he said. “We didn’t make a lot of errors today but the couple we made were really costly.”

Newsom continued, “Sevier swung the bats well. We had some runners but didn’t get timely hits. The exception to that today was Blake (Creech) and he hit the ball really well.

“So, we’re not playing really bad but we could play better and we have to hit the ball better. Maddox is a good pitcher and we’ll face another good one tomorrow over there.”

Creech had a pair of doubles to supply half of the Hurricanes’ hits. Brice Epps and Jonah Carden had the other hits for the ‘Canes.

After two scoreless innings, the Smoky Bears struck for three in the top of the third. Martin led off with a single and then Hamilton hit one off the net in left field that went for another single. Both of those wound up scoring on wild pitches and Moore walked and scored on a hit by Jacob Greene.

Sevier tacked on a run in the fourth as Martin had a one-out single and scored on a base hit by Christian Hoffman.

The Hurricanes got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth as Carden singled and was doubled in by Creech.

Hamilton smacked a home run with a man on to up the lead to 6-1 in the sixth.

East scored its final run in the seventh when Ethan Shockley reached on an error and came home when Creech hit the ball over the center fielder’s head.

The Bears added three insurance runs in the top of the final frame with Hamilton’s two-run triple into the right field corner the big blow.