MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The verdict came quickly for East Hamilton’s baseball team on Wednesday.
Ravenwood pummeled East Hamilton with 11 runs in the first three innings and went on to rout the Hurricanes, 12-2, in an elimination game in the TSSAA Spring Fling Class AAA baseball tournament at Siegel High School.
“It was real disappointing day,” Hurricanes coach Steve Garland said. “It’s a challenge in tournament sports any time you lose a heartbreaker and leave the ballpark about 9:30 p.m.
and turn around have to play the next morning.
“That’s not an excuse, but the reality is that we hadn’t picked ourselves up before we played Wednesday morning. I thought the mood was good during batting practice, but Ravenwood punched us in the mouth with four runs in the first inning. That set the tone for the game.”
The Raptors kept adding to their lead. The Hurricanes were unable to mount any type of comeback, save for two runs in the second inning.
Both teams were making their first appearance at the state tournament and East Hamilton (21-14) looked like the real rookie group.
“We’ve shown fight this year, but today we just ran out of gas,” Garland said.
Nick Woods hit a solo home run and Matt Milita produced the other run with a single.
It was a different story on the Raptors’ side.
Bryce Denton and Ryan Beamish combined for five hits in nine at-bats and six RBIs – three apiece.
Luke Yates also had three hits, including a double, and drove in two runs.
East Hamilton starter Hunter Smith gave up six runs, Woods yielded five hits and five runs. Josh Aslinger mopped up.
“I told the guys that when we look back at 2015, we’re not going to look back on today,” Garland said. “Today wasn’t a reflection of our season.
LINESCORE
Ravenwood 452 001 – 12 13 0
East Hamilton 020 000 – 2 5 0
Kaczor and Dudas; Smith, Woods (2), Aslinger (3) and Fahler.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)