Scott pitches Sevier County past Morristown East

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Judging from what he’s done in two local starts this season, if Sevier County lefty Brady Scott pitched all his games in Morristown, he would be pretty much untouchable.

Scott fired a one-hit shutout Tuesday afternoon at Sherwood Park as Sevier County clinched at least a tie for the District Two 4-A title with a 7-0 triumph over Morristown East.

The talented junior allowed only two baserunners as the Bears ran their record to 18-6 for the season and 9-1 in the district. He permitted only an infield hit by Ethan Shockley in the fourth inning while striking out 15. The only other runner for the Hurricanes was actually a strike out victim who reached when the ball bounced away from the catcher.

Counting his win when he threw against Morristown West, Scott has thrown 14 innings, allowed four hits and one run and struck out a whopping 32 while walking only one batter.

“That’s just who he is,” said Smoky Bears coach Casey Taylor. “He’s good. He’s better than last year. He’s changed his body and is stronger now and is more durable. He can fight through fatigue. He’s doing a great job for us.”

Taylor said, “You could see early on he had a really good pace and was in attack mode from the start and was going to get ahead of the batters and stay ahead. Nothing against East, but when we came out and scored right out of the gate you just got the feeling they weren’t going to score many runs off him.”

The Bears scored two in the first and four in the second before Isaac Greene came on in relief for the ‘Canes and held them to one run on four hits over the final five frames.

It was the 19th loss against two victories for East and left the Hurricanes at 0-10 in the district.

The Bears had blitzed East by 27-3 on Monday and Taylor remarked, “It was a good response by our kids after a blowout win yesterday that makes it tough on both teams. Sometimes, you just can’t ever tell how high school kids will come back after a game like that one.

“I give East’s kids credit for coming out here and battling us like they did,” said Taylor. “I know there are probably kids walking the halls of that school that should be out here but chose not to be. These are the kids that are fighting the battle and their coaching staff if fighting the battle and I respect them for what they’re going through.”

East’s J. D. Newsom was once again disappointed but said, “It was a lot more respectable than yesterday but it’s still another loss. But my kids are coming out here and giving it everything they’ve got all the time,

“I’ve told the kids many times that I will go to battle with these 15 boys every single day. No doubt, yesterday was tough and with the type of season we’ve had it would be easy for a team to get down and not respond. But, these boys know that when they want to play and play up to their ability they compete.

“I have 100 percent faith in them, 1 through 15. I know that when they’re out there, they’re going to give me their all.”

Newsom continued, “We gave up two in the first with two outs and then gave up four in the second with two outs. After that we brought Isaac in and he pitched the best he’s thrown all year.

“For the most part, our guys played good defense today and that’s a credit to our young guys who got an opportunity and came in there and played well. I thought once they got the jitters out early, they were ready to play some ball.”

The coach said, “Today, we didn’t give ourselves much of a chance at the plate. But we were facing the best overall pitcher in this league. He’s good. He has more velocity than last year and he can pitch.”

Scott almost had a no-hitter as Shockley’s ground ball was fielded by the second baseman in the outfield grass but he couldn’t get off a throw that was good enough to get the runner.

Other than that, the only East player to reach base came when Brice Epps struck out in the second and made it to first as the catcher threw wildly after chasing down the ball. But Scott got a fly ball to center and two more strike outs to end the inning.

After Shockley’s hit, Scott retired the final 11 batters.

Eli Seals was the starter and loser for East. He gave up four hits and six runs in his two innings while walking three and hitting two. Greene was impressive, going five full innings and allowing four hits and one unearned run with five strike outs and no walks.

Scott and catcher Bridger Hamilton had two hits each for the Smoky Bears in the win. One of Hamilton’s hits was a triple while Andrew Moore and Ty Koch had doubles.

The Bears got the only runs they needed in the first when Hamilton was hit by a pitch with two out. Scott singled and both scored on Moore’s double.

In the second Karsen Martin had a hit and Hamilton rapped his triple as the Bears scored four times to up the lead to 6-0.

The final run of the game was in the sixth when Jacob Greene got on by an error, moved to third on a double off the screen by Koch and scored on a ground out by Martin.

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