Signal Mountains’ confidence at the plate seemed to increase in the later innings of Monday afternoon’s 15-5 victory at Red Bank. During their first at bat the Eagles only managed one hit, a single from catcher Carter Giles, but it was enough to bring home lead-off Brandon Casner, who had stolen second base.
After that Red Bank went three and out as Signal Mountain pitcher Sam Witherspoon struck out two of the first three Lions he saw. Witherspoon had nine strikeouts in five innings on the mound.
In the second inning Signal had two more hits and scored two more runs before the Red Bank infield made a few nice plays in a row to get out off the field. Starting Lions pitcher Ethan Terry had the opportunity to make the game interesting with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the second. Unfortunately for Red Bank Terry struck out swinging and stranded three men on base.
In the top of the third Signal Mountain hit three singles and two batters walked but again the Red Bank defense stepped up and got out of the inning only down three. The Lions offence still hadn’t started clicking and Witherspoon struck out two of the four batters who stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the third.
Once again as the innings got higher so did the hits for Signal Mountain, in the top of the fourth the Eagles had four hits. Three of those hits were RBIs including the biggest shot of the game from short stop Ben Timblin. Timblin’s triple hit the 330-foot fence at Red Bank in the air and brought home Carter Giles. By the end of the fourth inning the Eagles were up 6-0 and looking dominate.
Red Bank finally managed to get on the board in the fourth after some good base running by Elijah Rennolds, who had been hit by a pitch. Ethan Terry was at the plate again and this time he made contact, but the strange angle the ball came off the bat confused the Eagles who thought Terry may have been hit by the pitch. In the commotion Ren\ynolds took off towards home and sneaked past the catcher.
Signal’s bats cooled off a bit in the fifth, but Carter Giles had his third hit and third RBI of the game. After going five and two thirds innings with three strike outs Terry was replaced on the mound by Alex Cagle with the bases loaded. Cagle walked his first batter bringing one run home before he popped up Eagle’s first baseman Hunter Davis to get out of the inning.
Short stop Jake Brune managed to bring home first baseman Logan Denton in the bottom of the fifth inning for Red Bank making the score 8-2 in Signal Mountain favor.
Both teams got new pitchers in the sixth inning and Red Bank’s Jaxson Keller had a positive first inning on the mound. He walked the first batter but then he struck out the next one and forced the final two into easy pop-fly outs. One pop-out was an RBI for the Eagle’s left fielder Cole Hanners,
In the sixth inning Signal Mountain sent out Preston Worley to pitch, Worley was delivering some serious heat, but the Lions seemed to adapt well to the speed. Red Bank had three hits and three RBIs in the inning to make the score 9-5. Red Bank had the opportunity to really shake up the game with the bases loaded and Elijah Reynolds at the plate. Again, the Lions couldn’t capitalize on the game changing opportunity and Reynolds popped out, stranding the bases loaded for the second time on Monday afternoon.
The Eagles put the game to bed in the seventh inning with six hits and six RBIs as they batted completely through the line-up. That made the game 15-5 and after a quick three and out from Red Bank the game was over.
Summary:
Signal Mountain 120 321 6 – 15-17-3
Red Bank 000 113 0 – 5- 8-3
Witherspoon, Worley (6) and Giles; Terry, Cagle(5), Keller (6) and Porter.
(Email William Shelton at will.shet21@gmail.com)