Jenkins dominates on mound, at plate in West win over East
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Morristown West’s Bryson Jenkins celebrated his own Senior Night in grand style Friday night at Trojans Park.
Jenkins combined with Charlie Dewald for a no-hitter and drove in three runs with a double and home run as West dumped cross-town rival East, 5-0.
After six seniors were honored in pregame ceremonies, the Trojans went out and notched their 12th victory against 15 losses.
Jenkins, Tison Johnson, Tayshawn Griffin and Landyn Spencer were the West seniors who were honored.
From there, Jenkins set the tone for the Trojans as he retired the first 11 batters he faced on the way to getting the mound verdict over Isaac Greene.
Jenkins walked four and struck out seven before leaving the mound after walking Carson Winstead who led off the East seventh. Charlie Dewald came to the mound and Jenkins moved to shortstop and immediately made an impact there as he made a great catch of a liner by Bralynn Keasling and doubled the runner off first.
Dewald then got the final out on a ground ball to short to nail down the shutout.
The Trojans got the only run they really needed in the bottom of the first when Gavin Mitchell doubled over the center fielder’s head with one out and Jenkins followed with another double into the gap in left-center.
That run stood up until the third when Riley Short doubled to lead off the inning and Jenkins smashed a long home run over the wall in center field one out later.
A two run single by Mitchell, his third hit of the game, plated the final two runs in the sixth frame.
Greene became the first East hurler to pitch a complete game this season in taking the loss. He allowed 10 hits, walked three and struck out four.
Mitchell led the Trojans’ attack with Short and Jenkins adding two hits each. Griffin, Spencer and Jordan Watson had West’s other safeties.
West coach Justin Pickett said, “Bryson set the tone for us tonight. He came out and really pounded the strike zone.
“I thought our defense played well behind him and I think it helped by us getting on the scoreboard early in the game.”
Pickett went on to say, “We had opportunities to add to our lead but didn’t do that very well. We wasted some at bats. But we had some big hits when we needed them, especially early in the game.
“We tried to be aggressive on the bases but had a couple of runners thrown out.”
Pickett said he knew Jenkins was getting a little tired and added, “But he wanted to go back out there and we wanted to give him a shot to finish it. But we brought Charlie in after that first batter because he was out of gas.
“Charlie’s been excellent for us,” said the coach. “He comes in and throws strikes and that’s what we needed right there. Bryson went to short and made a great play to stop any mojo they had.”
Pickett summed up, “It was just an all-around good game for us. We pitched it, we played good D and had some good at bats.”
It was another disappointing loss for the Hurricanes who are now 2-23. But Coach J. D. Newsom was upset with the play of his team.
“We were in that game right up to the end,” said Newsom. “Isaac pitched a heck of a game and that’s what we’ve been waiting on. It’s the right time for that to happen. We were one or two pitches away from making that a completely different game.
“Give credit to Jenkins,” Newsom said. “He pitched a great game, also.
“We had an opportunity there in the sixth inning to make something happen and just didn’t do it.”
Newsome closed, “Our guys are getting into it. We’re playing better on defense and that makes a difference. I just told them to keep their heads up and come back and play well again tomorrow.
“But our guys played better and I’m feeling more confident with where we’re at right now. We want to continue playing better next week when everything matters more.”
East had its first runner in the fourth on a walk and then had two batters hit by a pitch in the fifth. However, the sixth was their best scoring chance.
Lane Grizzell got on by an error to start the inning before the next batter popped out. Eli Seals walked but the next batter grounded to the second baseman for a force at second.
Jonah Carden then walked to load the bases but Jenkins came up with a strike out to get out of the jam.
In West’s half of the frame, an error, hit batter and walk loaded the bases and Mitchell singled up the middle for a pair of insurance runs.

