Morristown 11-12 All-Stars win District 4 Championship
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GREENEVILLE—Morristown captured the District Four Little League Tournament championship with a thrilling 4-3 victory over host Greeneville Friday night.
Nolan Sizemore knocked in the winning run on a ground out in the top of the final inning to give Morristown a berth in the state tournament at Columbia beginning on July 15.
The champs scored three times in the top of the first inning before the home team knotted the score on a controversial two-run homer by Titus Randolph in the fourth frame.
However, Brycen Ringley reached base on an error to start the sixth for Morristown and Collin Rouse followed with an infield out that saw Ringley go all the way to third with some heads-up baserunning.
Sizemore than grounded to third and Ringley raced across with what proved to be the winning run as Rouse was forced out at second base.
In the bottom of the inning, Kipton Smith retired the first two batter he faced before leaving the mound to remain eligible by the pitch-count rule.
Jones came on in relief and walked Randolph intentionally. Braydon Pokorny also walked to move the tying run to second but Jones struck out the next man to give Morristown the title.
Morristown wasted no time in grabbing the lead. Smith led off the top of the first with a single to left field and Ringley was safe on an error.
Collin Rouse doubled in the first run and two more scored on ground outs by Sizemore and Nash Synamon to give Morristown a 3-0 lead.
Greeneville got one run back in the bottom of the inning when the first two batters walked with Dawson Ripley scoring on a sacrifice fly by Pokorny.
It stayed that way until the fourth when Ripley singled to lead off for Greeneville and was forced ut at second by Sawyer Blair.
Randolph then slugged a long home run into the trees in left field. However, he clearly missed home plate and the umpire handed Morristown catcher Ringley a baseball and he tagged him. The plate umpire called Randolph out.
However, the umpires called time and conferred about the call before ruling it wasn’t an out and the run counted much to the dismay of the Morristown fans. But the score was tied at 3-3 to set the stage for the winning rally.
Smith was the winning hurler in relief of Sizemore. Sizemore pitched 4.3 innings before running out of pitches. He gave up four hits and all three runs while walking four and striking out seven.
Blair was the starter and loser for Greeneville. He made it until one out in the sixth before running out of pitches and Ripley came on to finish the game.
Rouse and Jones had two hits each for Morristown with Smith getting the only other hit. Randolph homered for the losers with Ripley, Myers and Ryan Schofield adding a single each.

