Surging East Hamilton Whips Rival Ooltewah, 10-2

Watters Stymies Owls With Strong 4-Hitter In 5-3A

  • Monday, April 25, 2016
  • Larry Fleming

East Hamilton’s Matt Watters was in shut-down mode Monday night at Ooltewah.

After giving up a leadoff double to recent Lee University signee Mitch Duncan, Watters retired 16 in a row, got flawless defense, a 13-hit attack by teammates and the surging Hurricanes walloped the Owls, 10-2, in District 5-3A baseball action before a nice crowd at A.C. “Bud Ball Field.

Watters, 4-2 with a save this season, wound up with a four-hitter and recorded three strikeouts and manhandling the Owls on their home diamond. He walked one batter, that coming in the seventh inning.

“My pitches were all working and I was hitting my spots,” Watters said after getting his right forearm and shoulder iced. “I was relying mostly on my fastball and curve and mixed in a few changeups.”

After Duncan’s double to left-center field, Watters recorded 16 straight outs until hitting No. 9 batter Trevor Wiggs with one out in the sixth inning. Duncan, who scored in the first on a groundout, followed with a single, but Watters got Jake Sullivan on a pop to short and Caleb Collins on a fly-out to center.

Jackson Malcolm walked and Andy Reed and Andrew Manning each singled in the seventh. Right-fielder Jordan Gorman fielded Manning’s hit and catcher Garrett Owen couldn’t handle the throw home, allowing Duncan to score.

“Matt showed a ton of maturity and we played good defense behind him,” East Hamilton coach Steve Garland said. “Matt’s a veteran player and started for three years. He was a reliever and weekend tournament starter, but has assumed the role of ace on this year’s staff. And, he’s done really well for us.”

The Hurricanes (17-13, 5-6), who has won 12 of their last 15 games, got to Ooltewah starter Caleb Collins in the third inning and took a 1-2 lead. Gorman tripled in Logan Kenney, who reached on Duncan’s error at shortstop. Gorman, who was 3 for 4, scored on Tyler Blum’s sacrifice fly.

In the fourth, the Hurricanes pounded Collins for five hits, including RBI singles by Kenney and Blum.

In a four-run fifth, Brandon DelValle laced a two-run double to left. He later scored on a wild pitch and shortstop Nick Woods, a University of Tennessee commitment, had a sacrifice fly.

Lee Hester added a two-run double to the Hurricanes’ offensive onslaught in the sixth.

“We got off to a slow start this year and we had 11 guys miss time with injuries,” Garland said. “Now the guys are healthy and falling into place. We had good approaches at the plate tonight and we hit the ball well.”

Duncan had two hits for Ooltewah (20-12, 5-6).

“We didn’t play enough in any facet of the game to be competitive,” Hitchcox said. “(Watters) did a good job keeping us off balance; we hit a few balls hard but right at them. They hit a few balls that found holes. At the end of the day, we didn’t pitch it well enough, didn’t hit it well enough and didn’t play good enough defense to win.”

The two teams wind up the regular season on Tuesday at East Hamilton. Game time is 4 p.m.

In other district games, Bradley Central routed McMinn County, 18-1, and Walker Valley rallied to beat Cleveland, 5-3.

Bradley Central 18, McMinn County 1 (5 innings): This was an old-fashioned beat-down. The Bears (21-6, 11-0), the district tournament’s No. 1 seed with a Region 3-3A tournament spot already secured, scored five runs in the first and nine in the second against the  lowly Cherokees (0-10 in the district).

Bradley pounded out 16 hits, including three each by Hunter Hames and Kylar Lynn.

Pitcher Brandon Thompson (7-0 in the district), Jeremiah Sims, Jake Presley and Tyler Carpenter had two hits apiece.

Lynn and Sims each had two-run singles in the first inning. Lynn’s single in the second drove in two more runs. The Bears had seven hits in the inning.

In the fourth, Thompson had a two-run double.

Thompson checked the Cherokees on four hits.

Bradley will try to wrap up an unbeaten regular-season district schedule Tuesday night at home against McMinn County. Game time at the Toby McKenzie Baseball complex is 7 p.m.

Boxscore

East Hamilton                  002 242 0 – 10 13 0

Ooltewah                           100 000 1 – 2 4 4

Watters and Owen; Collins, Wolfe (5), Malcolm (7) and Reed.

Bradley Central                590 40 – 18 16 0

McMinn County                000 01 – 1 4 3

WP – Thompson; LP – Curtis.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

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