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SEVIERVILLE—Regular season champion Sevier County raced to a 7-1 triumph over Morristown East in the opening game of the District 2-4A Tournament Wednesday afternoon.

The Smoky Bears upped their record to 23-7 and advanced to play Morristown West tonight in the winners bracket. The Hurricanes, now 3-26 for the season will battle Jefferson County in an elimination game tonight at 5 p.m.

Andrew Moore belted a solo home run and double for the Smoky Bears while Knox Kremblis had a double and single and Bridger Hamilton two singles.

Jonah Carden and Carson Winstead had two hits apiece for the Hurricanes.

East got on the scoreboard first in the top of the second. Carden and Winstead both had hits and Winstead scored when his brother Brodie reached on an error.

The Hurricanes might have gotten more runs but had a runner thrown out at third for the first out and another out at the plate for the third out.

Sevier County tied the game in its half of the inning when Moore doubled and scored on a ground out by Christian Hoffman.

The Bears struck their biggest blow in the fourth when they batted around. East committed a couple of errors and Kremblis, Mason Ellis and Hamilton all had hits.

East got one of those runs back in the top of the fifth when Isaac Greene led off with an infield hit and scored on a double by Ethan Shockley.

Moore homered to lead off the Sevier fifth and Karson Martin singled and scored on a double by Brady Scott in the sixth.

Ty Koch got the mound verdict over Greene. Koch relieved Bears starter Hoffman to start the third inning and finished up. Koch gave up six hits and one run while walking none and striking out two.

Greene allowed all nine hits, walked three and struck out two before leaving the mound with two out in the sixth.

East coach J. D. Newsom said, “We didn’t play bad overall. We just had missed opportunities.

“We had a missed sign there in the first inning that cost us,” he added. “We were trying to put pressure on them because we didn’t have much to lose.

“I thought Isaac threw a heck of a ball game,” Newsome observed. “He had one bad inning and some of the other balls probably should have been caught.”

Newsom added, “It started with an error, a hit by pitch and a walk. And then bam, bam, bam and it doesn’t take much after that.

“We responded. We hit the ball well today. We hit it hard a few times and it was just right at their guys. They had some guys make really good plays.”

The coach closed by saying, “We have to fight for it all tomorrow in the losers bracket.”

Sevier’s Casey Taylor said, “We kind of rolled the dice by not using either of our best pitchers. It was one of those deals where we trust both of those guys. Hoffman got off to a shaky start early and we brought Ty in.

“It was one of those things where if he’s got it you stay with him and if not you get him out of there. Overall, it worked out pretty well for us.”

Taylor added, “I thought both teams made errors on the bases. It’s crazy how much you put into it and they’re still going to make mistakes.”