By Larry N. Souders

What started as a pitchers duel between the Highlanders Dillion Johnson and North Greene’s Zane Potter ended in a blowout.

North Greene sent the sixth seed Highlanders home with a 10-0 loss on day one of the District 1-A tournament at David Crockett High School Friday night.

Cloudland’s junior starter threw 110 pitches before senior Logan Ingram came on in relief after he had faced the first three batters of sixth.

Johnson went toe-to-toe with three different Husky hurlers before being pulled. He had given up a single run in the fourth and three more in the fifth. The sixth was his undoing. He surrendered hits to each of the three batters he faced in the inning.

The Huskies played small ball all day getting hits and stealing bases in every inning starting in the bottom of the second. The Huskies were off their leashes, stealing a total of 14 bases in six innings.

The Highlanders bats were not silent, they just never seem to come alive during the right moments of the game.

Cloudland coach Cory Rhodes commented about the Highlanders season, “It’s been a good year minus the record, we finished 2-25, but it’s not about the record. It’s the first time we’ve played more than 20 games at Cloudland in a long time. From game one to tonight, it’s been a huge improvement. I’ve lost a lot of guys you, but now I’ve got a fine core group of guys that I’m happy with, and we end the right way, growing as a team.”