Cyclones fall to Vikings in Tribe Classic
Published 9:29 pm Friday, April 17, 2015
By Gene Renfro
Correspondent
BRISTOL– The Elizabethton Cyclones were unable to sink the Vikings of Tennessee High Friday in a Tribe Classic contest. The Vikings won,11-1.
“Not much punch, drive, energy,” Elizabethton coach J.P. Nix said. “You’ve got to have that, especially in a tournament — specially when the other team is playing with a lot of emotion.
You have to show something back. We kind of got out of the way and told them to keep on rolling.”
The Cyclones got onto the scoreboard after a busy fourth inning. Starting pitcher Bo Pless had a four-pitch walk with one out, then courtesy runner Jesse Carr took over on the bases. Michael Robinson singled to center before a crazy single to shallow center by Brodie Adams. The hit by Adams did not allow Carr a good jump toward third base.
The Vikings’ D.J. Marrs uncorked a throw to third, but Zach Hall was straddling the bag on the potential force play. Carr also was almost picked off at thirdbefore Davis Ensor grounded out for the RBI.
Tennessee High got a pair of runs in both the second and third innings. David Tolbert scored in both innings and had an RBI single in the third. Christian Greene added an RBI single in the third to make it 4-0.
The Vikings added to their lead with back-to-back doubles in the fifth that ended the day for Pless on the mound. Austin Blackwell had the first RBI double before Greene cleared the bases with a two-run double.
Tennessee High got to Elizabethton in the fifth and sent 10 batters to the plate, where the game came to an end when Christian Gibson put a two-out double on the line in right field that cleared the loaded bases. He started the inning with a single as well.
Greene had a two-run double of his own as well before three straight walks loaded the bases and Gibson stepped into the box.
Gibson, Blackwell and Greene each had two hits in the contest.
Michael Robinson had two of the Cyclones’ four hits.
Greene also picked up the pitching victory with the complete game effort. He gave up the lone run on four hits. Greene did not strike a Cyclone batter out, but walked three.
Pless went the first 4 1/3 innings and gave up eight runs and the same number of hits. He walked two and struck out two as well.
“You have to have a short memory and play game two,” Nix said about the message in the tournament setting in preparation for the District 1AA Tournament. “Chalk it up to a lesson learned.”
Elizabethton…….. 000 10 – 1 4 0Tennessee……….. 022 07 – 11 9 0Pitchers: Elizabethton – Bo Pless; Dylan Tolley(5) and Hunter Hodges. Tennessee – Connor Greeneand Deric Graham.Win-Connor Greene Loss-Bo Pless
