by Bryce Phillips

Star Staff

bryce.phillips@elizabethton.com

The arm of Elizabethton High School freshman pitcher Ethan Eggleston allowed the EHS Cyclones to hold on for a 4-2 win over the Happy Valley Warriors Tuesday at Joe O’Brien Field.

Eggleston led the Cyclones from the mound all seven innings and only allowed six hits and two runs. He recorded seven strikeouts in the last half of the game, two of which came at a crucial moment.

With a Happy Valley runner on first and second in final inning, the freshman pitcher threw back-to-back KOs to end the game.

“That kid is all heart,” said EHS coach Joe Diaz about Eggelston. “He will give you everything. He played a double header yesterday and came out here today and threw seven innings. That says everything about him.”

Pitching under pressure is not hard when you have a good group of fielders behind you, Eggelston said.

“Having a good defense definitely helps,” he said. “I also had a really good defensive catcher (John Lee) that knows what he is doing. He was calling pitches really well tonight, I thought. I just did my job and he did even better at his.”

EHS Catcher John Lee had two shining moments last night, throwing out two Happy Valley Warriors who were trying to steal second.

“I tried to call a delayed steal there,” said Happy Valley coach Adam Copeland, who was coaching third base when Lee threw out two of his runners. “I was trying to get something going, and I thought we had timed it perfect, but the catcher – credit to him – made a good play.”

EHS got on board first in the opening frame. In the second inning the teams both posted two runs.

The Cyclones’ fourth run came in the third inning when Garrett Hartley stole home after an errant pitch.

“We came out a little flat,�� said Diaz. “As the game went on, we picked up our momentum, and we started getting excited. That carried over into our game play.

Happy Valley started Alton Clark at the mound and rotated to Hunter Jones in the fifth inning. Clark had one strikeout over his two innings pitching, while allowing zero hits. Overall the Warriors only gave up six hits to the Cyclones.

“I thought our pitching was solid,” Copeland said. “All and all, both Hunter and Jones threw great.”

The Warriors played a defensively strong game, but had trouble from the plate, Copeland said.

“Defensively we weren’t too bad,” he said. “We made a few mistakes. Bottom line, Ethan threw a great game. He had our number. We need to make some adjustments at the plate. We just have to be more disciplined at the plate.”

Tomorrow the Warriors will host Volunteer. The Cyclones will host the Unaka Rangers.