B

Morristown West led by only 2-1 after two innings Saturday morning at Sherwood Park but batted around in each of the last three frames and rolled to an 18-1 rout of cross-town rival East.

The Trojans collected a dozen hits in improving their record to 13-15 for the season and closed District Two 4-A play with a 6-6 mark. It also gave West a four-game sweep over the Hurricanes.

East fell to 2-24 and finished district play winless in a dozen games.

The Hurricanes will play host to Northview Academy on Monday for Senior Night while West travels to Cocke County.

Both will begin play in the District Two 4-A Tournament at Sevier County on Wednesday.

Riley Short collected three hits and winning pitcher Paxton Seal, Bryson Shepard and Gavin Mitchell all had two for the Trojans.

East managed just five hits in the game and four of those came on bunt singles. Jonah Carden had two of those. Lane Grizzell had a triple for the ‘Canes.

Seal pitched four innings in getting the mound decision over Ethan O’Dowd. Seal gave up all the hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. Landyn Spencer pitched the final frame. He walked one and struck out one.

O’Dowd pitched two innings and faced four batters in the third. He gave up four hits and six runs. Grizzell, Carden and Brodie Winstead also pitched for the ‘Canes.

West coach Justin Pickett said, “I thought we came out and played pretty well. Paxton did a good job on the mound and we were just trying to get him some innings before the tournament starts.

“We hit the ball well and that was really good to see,” he added.

The coach closed, “It was a challenge. We hadn’t played a morning game and we’ve got the prom tonight. So there were a lot of things that could have gotten in their heads.

“But the kids came out and got the job done so I’m very proud of them.”

East’s J. D. Newsom wasn’t very happy with his team. “As good a job as we did Friday night competing, we didn’t do today. We had some different kids get an opportunity to play today for one reason or another. We just didn’t have it today.

“We were fired up ready to play in those first couple of innings but that six-run inning just deflated us,” he said. “After that, it was just bad baseball and there’s no other way to say it.

“I know one thing and that is we either get it corrected and compete next week or we’ll be two-and-out for the fifth or sixth year in a row.”

Newsom said, “We made them make plays early in the game but when we got way down, it kind of took our game plan away. Then Paxton settled in and did what Paxton does.”

West got two in the top of the first without a base hit. O’Dowd hit the first two batters and they scored on sacrifice flies by Bryson Jenkins and Tayshawn Griffin.

In the bottom of the frame, Grizzell led off with his triple down the right field line. One out later, Carden had a bunt single and Grizzell scored on an error on the play. Eli Seals had another bunt hit and Carson Winstead walked to load the bases before Seal retired the next two batters.

Neither team scored in the second before West exploded. Mitchell and Jenkins had hits to start the inning and both scored on a single by Seal. East had three errors in the inning and Short added another hit as three more runs scored to make it 8-1.

It was more of the same as the Trojans plated five in the fourth. Shepard doubled in a pair of runs with Cody Blair and Short also having run-scoring hits that went along with two errors by the Hurricanes.

Five more runs in the fifth ended the scoring. Mitchell singled and Corey Griffith walked before Seals had a hit to score one. Pinch-hitter Connor Rouse’s single scored one and Jordan Watson singled in another before Short got his final hit of the day.