Jr. Cyclones lose tough game in Big-6 Conference tourney, 9-2

Published 8:34 am Monday, April 29, 2019

BY NIC MILLER

STAR CORRESPONDENT

KINGSPORT— The T.A. Dugger Jr. Cyclones traveled to Kingsport Thursday night to take on the Vance Vikings in the TSSAA Big 6 tournament. After winning a thriller in 11 innings Tuesday night, the Jr. Cyclones were looking to continue their winning streak.

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After a high-scoring inning in the first by Vance, T.A. Dugger wasn’t able to catch up losing 9-2 to the Jr. Vikings from Bristol.

The Jr. Cyclones couldn’t get anything to go their way to start the matchup. After a well-hit single to centerfield by Jack Farris, T.A. Dugger was sat down quickly.

Vance however, was firing on all cylinders from the get-go. After a quick first out, the first runner scored as a result of a wild pitch.

The Jr. Vikings didn’t stop there as they ended up getting three more runs across in the inning making it a 4-0 ball game after one.

The second inning seemed to be a repeat of the first for the Jr. Cyclones as the first three batters were sat down with three straight outs.

On the defensive side of the ball, T.A. Dugger began to find their groove allowing only one runner for Vance to cross the plate in the bottom half of the inning.

In the top of the third the Jr. Cyclones looked like they were going to start a surge as Peyton Johnson hit a pitch to shallow right field bringing Nate Stephens around to score, turning it into a 5-1 affair.

With a runner on first and second, TAD lost their momentum when a fly ball to right field retired the side.

In the bottom frame, after the first two batters reached base, the Jr. Cyclones hoped that a change on the mound would help their cause.

With Andrew Stevens now on the mound to replace starter Brilee Hurley, TAD was able to get out of the inning unscathed after an impressive double play by Steven Meadows of the Jr. Cyclones.

As the fourth inning rolled around, T.A. Dugger seemed as if they were going to have another dry inning at the plate.

After a hit by Kaleb Hambrick that looked as if it was going to spark the Jr. Cyclones hitting performance, a strikeout of the next batter put them away with a zero for the inning.

TAD looked to keep their strong defensive performance going in the Viking half of the inning.

A sacrifice fly brought in one more runner for Vance. The Jr. Vikings high scoring hopes were thwarted after being sat down in the frame leaving the score at 6-1 in favor of Vance.

The fifth inning for the Jr. Cyclones were the same as it had been for the previous four. With hopes of cutting into the five-run deficit, TAD was sat down in three quick outs.

The same could be said for Vance as they were also sat down quickly keeping the score at 6-1 after five.

The sixth inning brought with it an impressive hitting performance for TAD.

After an RBI single by starting pitcher Hurley, the Jr. Cyclones were hit with yet again a stroke of bad luck hitting into a double play that would eventually retire the side.

After yet another pitching change for TAD that brought Farris to the mound, the Jr. Vikings began to surge again adding three more runs to their score making it a 9-2 game with one more inning of play.

In the final inning of play, T.A. Dugger needed to get something going fast.

But as it had happened all night, the Jr. Cyclones couldn’t find an open spot in the field losing the game by a score of 9-2.

When asked about how his team is hoping to bounce back and keep going in the tournament, head coach Cody Metcalf said, “We are going to try to re-focus and get our minds set that today wasn’t the end of our season and that it’s do or die now.”

The Jr. Cyclones looked to keep their tournament hopes alive once again at Hunter Wright Stadium Friday evening.