Munford may have lost to Dyer County in a series warmup before district games begin, but, after the 5-0 loss on Tuesday night at home, coach Scotty Yount looked at a positive in the negative: Brodie Fortner.
The sophomore infielder relieved a struggling Gavin Boyles, who gave up three runs in the first inning. He threw a solid game in the 5.2 innings he pitched, striking out six with one error on the mound.
“This is his third time we brought him in when we needed someone to come in and throw strikes, and I think we found a little diamond in the rough there,” Yount said regarding Fortner. “He’s been like that every single time.”
The only run on his time on the mound was in the seventh when a hard ground ball by J.D. Binkley rolled under Elijah Holloway and out to left field that gave Landon Willis the green light home.
Despite seeing improvement in Fortner’s throwing, the Cougars struggled offensively and couldn’t come up with a key hit to get on board. Geiger’s two hits off three trips wasn’t enough to create runs either.
“We just got to keep swinging it,” Yount emphasized. “When they start falling, everything’s contagious. You hit the ball hard all night, it gets caught, it’s contagious. You hit a flair that drops, and, all of a sudden, everything starts dropping. So, hopefully, we just start hitting it at the same time.”
Yes, this is a team they could potentially face in the regional tournament, but Yount knew that it’s a regular season game and preps for the next seven days as they compete in the USA Classic this weekend. They will start district play against Brighton next Monday.
“It’s just all about preparing for the end,” Yount said. “Of course we wanted to win, you know, but it’s not the be all and end all right now.”
He added with a laugh: “We haven’t swung it real good just yet. Hopefully, when the weather heats up.”
In other baseball games
Brighton completed sweep over Haywood, 5-0, last night at home. M.J. Parimore pitched a complete game, shutting out 11 batters and allowed no hits.
Case Maxwell, Kaiden Ingram, Luke Perkins, and Brodie Billings went 2-for-3.
Braden Gover had six strikeouts and went 3-for-3 in a 6-0 shutout win over Ripley to go undefeated in district play. Holden Warmath was dominant in the box, hitting two homers to drive in 2 RBIs.
After dropping their district opener series to Jackson Christian, TRA managed to bounce back on Tuesday with a 7-2 win. Eli Ramsey earned the win on the hill with six strikeouts and allowing only two hits in 6.2 innings pitched.
Adam Redman went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs.
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In softball
Munford softball moved to 5-3 with a 10-6 win over SBA. Lexi Billings struck out seven and went 3-for-3 with four RBIs.
Jordan Wilson went 3-for-4. Sadie Billings and Mia Kate Griffin each had a hit.
Adin Shelton hit a three-run homer that led Brighton to a 9-6 victory over SBA on Monday. Aliya Garcia had two singles and a double, and Brie Howard tripled.
Laney Lawson scattered 12 hits with four strikeouts.
TRA smacked 16 hits against Kinley Escue in a 11-7 victory on Monday. Caroline Jones had three singles and tripled, and Lanie Howe collected four RBIs.
Keaton Wheeler went 2-for-2 on the plate and tallied up five RBIs.
The next day, TRA routed Fayette Academy 12-2 with Howe striking out six and four hits scattered. Neely Grantham went 3-for-3 and Jones marked up five RBIs.
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