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Practically everybody at Trojans Park Monday night was expecting a pitcher’s duel. But that certainly wasn’t what they saw as Jefferson County and West continued their battle for second place in the District 2-4A baseball race.

Although both had their ace on the mound, the teams combined for 21 runs, 22 hits, 16 bases on balls and five hit batters as the Patriots captured a 13-8 victory.

Maddux Rogers collected four hits, Drew Potts added three and Isaac Lawson, Briley LaRue and Lucas Havely chipped in two apiece as the Patriots improved their record to 15-8. They are now 6-3 in the district.

Rogers and winning pitcher Beau Revord homered for the Patriots. Rogers also had a pair of doubles with Potts and Briley LaRue also doubled.

The Trojans finished with eight hits as Cody Blair and Jordan Watson led the way with two apiece. Blair and losing hurler Paxton Seal had doubles.

West slipped to 8-12 for the season and is now 4-5 in the district. The same two teams battle again today in Dandridge.

Revord threw well over 100 pitches in his six innings of work. He allowed six hits, walked four, struck out six and hit three.

Seal allowed 11 hits but in fairness at least three of those were on fly balls that should have been caught, as the Trojans weren’t very impressive defensively. Seal pitched 4.2 innings, walked two, hit two and fanned six.

Watson got the last two outs in the fifth while Bryson Shepard pitched the last two innings and struck out four.

Jace Dobbins pitched the seventh for the Patriots. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out two.

The Patriots never trailed although the home team came back to tie the game at 3-3 after two innings. After the lead went back to 7-3, West struck for three more in the fourth.

However, the winners came right back with two in the fifth and three in the sixth.

West coach Justin Pickett said, “Our defense just let us down. It happened right off the bat early in the game. We had some routine plays we didn’t make and gave them some runs early.

“You know, when you give teams free bases, they’re gonna score,” he said. “I don’t know why or what the reason was that we showed up dead on defense but we have to bounce back tomorrow. We had been playing pretty good defense. We have to do much better than we did today.”

Pickett said, “We chipped away at their lead and we were in good position. But we went back out there and they got more runs when we threw the ball around a little bit.

“Paxton went out there on the mound and competed but we just have to do a better job on defense. We have to make basic plays and give ourselves a chance to win.”

The problems started quickly as Rogers popped a ball up into center and wound up with a double when it wasn’t caught. Owen Grimsley walked and Potts singled in the first run before LaRue’s sacrifice fly scored Grimsley to make it 2-0.

Rogers homered in the second to increase the lead but Seal and Blair opened the bottom of the inning with back-to-back doubles. Tayshawn Griffin walked before Landyn Spencer’s sac fly scored Blair. The Trojans tied it when Shepard drew a bases-loaded walk.

But, the Patriots came right back with two more runs in the third. LaRue had a single and the only other hit in the inning was a bunt single by Lawson. West had two errors in the inning including a dropped fly ball that would have been the third out.

Potts singled to lead off the fourth and Revord followed with a home run to up the count to 7-3.

However, the Trojans rallied again. Blair had a single, Griffin was hit by a pitch and Charlie DeWald walked to load the bases. Spencer walked to force in a run and Watson doubled to right to get the Trojans within 7-6 and leave runners on second and third.

But, Revord escaped with a strike out and a grounder to Rogers at third. Rogers, Potts and Brody Carr all had hits as the Patriots scored twice in the fifth and then Havely and Rogers had hits in a four-run sixth that put the game pretty much out of reach at 13-6.

Jefferson County coach Zach Reese remarked, “I was proud of our offense. We scored in the first six innings and had a hit in all of those.

“We kept putting pressure on them but if you looked at the game coming in with those two arms out there you’d never had thought it would be like this. I didn’t think either pitcher was really clean but they both competed. They both gave up some hits and runs but kept coming back to get big outs.”

Reese said his team was ready for this one. “After they beat us bad up here, we kind of had this one circled. We came out and scored early and kept scoring.

“I think Beau continues to show flashes of the pitcher that he really is but he has also had some ups and downs this season.

“It wasn’t what we were expecting but the kids did what we needed to do to come out with the win. Now we have to go out there and do it all over tomorrow.”

The Trojans tried to rally in the seventh when Dobbins relieved Revord. A pair of walks and hits by Griffin and DeWald scored two runs but Dobbins struck out the next batter to end the game.