| Greenfield weathers early UC storm to win region | By: Sara Reid — Special to the Weakley County Pres
| Posted: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:37 pm
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Back-To-Back Region Champions — The Greenfield Yellowjackets earned their second consecutive Region 7-A championship by defeating the visiting Union City Golden Tornadoes, 11-1, in action Wednesday night. Photo courtesy BeLynda Jones | | | For the second straight championship game, the Tornado warning was downgraded to little more than a light breeze by the Greenfield Yellowjackets.
Scoring nine runs in the fifth inning, the host Yellowjackets put Union City away, 11-1, to take the Region 7-A championship on Wednesday night and move on to host a Sectional game against the Adamsville Cardinals on Friday.
The victory for GHS is a repeat performance of their win over Union City in the District 13-A title contest.
With Heath Crouse pitching for Greenfield, UC leadoff batter Drake Parker walked, Cameron Powers sacrificed Parker to second base, Stevie Gossett struck out and Zach Cavness popped up to end the game’s first at-bat. For Greenfield, Dalton Potts rapped a one-out single, but a groundout and pop-up brought an end to the inning.
In the second inning, the Golden Tornadoes put the first run on the board when Branson Sherwood singled, Will Arnold knocked a sac fly and Rance Barnes recorded a grounder that bounced through the gap in left field to send in Sherwood and put the visitors on top 1-0. When the Jackets picked up their bats, Jacob Johnson worked a leadoff walk but was stranded on the basepaths.
Union City collected a single from Powers to open the third, but Heath Crouse forced an out on a bunt and picked up two more outs on ground balls. In the bottom of the inning, Hunter Crouse doubled down the left field line, Tony Robinson singled and Potts laid down a bunt to load the bases. Tyler Jones singled to send in one run, but Potts was tagged out. Heath Crouse didn’t waste his opportunity with a double to send in another run and Greenfield took a 2-1 lead after three innings.
Both offenses were contained in the fourth, but the Yellowjackets took complete control in the fifth and the runs began to cascade. Jones led off with a walk and Heath Crouse belted a two-run shot that cleared the fence and the bases and put Greenfield ahead, 4-1. Johnson was hit by a pitch, Graham Perkins singled, Payton Page was also plunked and the bases were full with no outs. Ty Smithson earned a walk to bring in a run. Hunter Crouse singled to drive in another run, before Robinson walked in a run. Potts recorded a ground-rule double to send two Jackets across the plate. Jones was hit by a pitch, and Robinson flew out to send in a run and put Greenfield up, 10-1. With just one out on the board, Perkins’ sacrifice fly brought home a run and the bleeding stopped at 11-1.
With the victory, Greenfield takes its second consecutive Region 7-A title and will host Adamsville, the Region 8-A runner-up, in a must-win game on Friday. Union City will travel to Riverside, the Region 8-A champ, on Friday. Riverside was a 3-2 victor over Adamsville in their regional championship game. | | | | |
