| Jackets hammer Halls, need extras innings to out-duel SF | By: Sara Reid — Special to the Weakley County Pres
| Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 1:59 pm
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Get back — Greenfield’s Hunter Crouse dives back to first base to beat a pickoff throw during his team’s thrilling 2-1 win over South Fulton in 10 innings during early action in the District 14-A Baseball Tournament Friday night. Photo by Sara Re | | | The Greenfield Yellowjackets used two different methods to earn two wins Friday and Saturday in the District 14-A Tournament.
On Friday, the Jackets used dominating pitching to edge out a 2-1 victory in 10 innings over the visiting South Fulton Red Devils. One day later, the Greenfield offense piled up 18 runs in an 18-3 win over Halls in Union City.
The day after scoring two runs to win a 10-inning marathon game, the Greenfield Yellowjackets put up 18 runs and ended the contest in six with an 18-3 win over the Halls Tigers in District 14-A tournament action this past Saturday in Union City.
Greenfield scored early and often and put up three runs in the first inning on a leadoff double from Tony Robinson, a sac bunt from Dalton Potts to send Robinson to third and a Tyler Jones fly to send in the first run. Heath Crouse and Jacob Johnson singled to load the bases and both Payton Paige and Ty Smithson walked to bring in two runs and put the visitors up 3-0.
In the bottom of the second, however, Halls got a bases-loaded single to cut into the lead, 3-2. The Tigers scored again in the third to tie the contest, 3-3, but it was the last run for the home team as the Greenfield runs and the Halls errors began to pile up.
The flood gates opened in the top of the fourth as the Yellowjackets put five runs on the board on hits from Hunter Crouse, Robinson, Potts, Jones, Heath Crouse, Johnson and Graham Perkins to push Greenfield back into the lead, 8-3.
In the fifth, GHS added a run for a 9-3 Jacket edge and Greenfield exploded for nine more runs in the sixth.
When the smoke cleared, the Tigers finished with a slate of six hits to go with six errors and Greenfield scored 18 runs on 17 hits, rolled to an 18-3 win and moved on to play again vs. Humboldt at 7:30 tonight (Tuesday) in Union City.
In their tourney opening win over South Fulton, with two on base and the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jacob Johnson ripped a grounder that sliced through the Red Devil defense, sent in Dalton Potts from second base and ended a marathon game with a 2-1 District 14-A Tournament victory for the Yellowjackets this past Friday in Greenfield.
Greenfield loaded the bases in the first with one out, but South Fulton’s defense and freshman pitcher Ryan Prince came through to start a trend of stranded runners that would haunt both squads.
In the second, SF appeared to be on the verge of taking the lead, but Jones at catcher stood his ground and tagged out the runner. In the home half, Hunter Crouse singled but was left on the bases.
On the mound, Greenfield’s Heath Crouse struck out two and retired the side in order to open the third. In the bottom of the inning, Jones shot one through the gap in left for a one-out single but never got home.
The leadoff Devil walked in the fourth, but Jones threw him out trying to steal. It was three up and three down for GHS and the contest remained scoreless.
After a leadoff single for SF to start the fifth, Jones single-handedly turned two outs on the next at-bat by catching a popup and then catching the runner off the bag at first. In the bottom of the inning, Hunter Crouse singled with a line drive to center. Potts’ grounder advanced the runner to second and Hunter Crouse came in to score on a wild throw to third base to give Greenfield a 1-0 lead and what seemed to be a firm grip on a victory in a game controlled by defense.
In the sixth, Heath Crouse allowed a one-out walk to Jonathan Clouse and a single to put two Devils on base. Prince brought Clouse home for a 1-1 tie. For GHS, Graham Perkins doubled down the left field line but was stranded.
With Potts in to pitch the seventh, he struck out two and got three outs in a row. In the bottom of the inning, Robinson singled with two outs and Potts walked to put two on base. Jones grounded out, however, and the game entered extra innings.
Potts struck out two to open the eighth, gave up a floating single to shallow left and forced a popup to end the SF half. For GHS, Johnson singled and stole second, but South Fulton left another Jacket on board.
In the ninth, both teams went down in order to send the game to the tenth.
Potts gave up a double, but struck out the next three batters to bring his strikeout total to eight and keep the score knotted at 1-all. In the bottom of the inning, Potts battled and drew a leadoff walk. Jones struck out and Heath Crouse walked. Johnson singled and Potts came in to score on a wild throw to third base to end the contest with a 2-1 win for the home team. | | | | |
