johnson2

Heard the SC/West game was exciting. Jeff County 6-1 over Cocke County last night. CCHS led 1-0 going to bottom four but Jeff put up a five spot. Play again today in Newport.

Any makeup date set for the Seymour/Jeff game yet? Monday in Newport, Cocke County 2-1 over South Doyle behind 10 strikeouts from Heath Ford in a complete game on the mound. He also had the walkoff hit in the bottom of the 7th. Wednesday at South Doyle, Cocke County won 3-0 behind a complete game shutout from Tanner Strange.

I have talked to some people close to the situation and this is what I understand to be true. Norris pitched the Monday region game and turned around on short rest and threw a complete game against Halls in the Friday SubState game. Edwards did not want to put the extra strain on his arm to turn him around on short rest again and have him making consecutive starts without the proper rest. Everyone would have liked to have Norris throw game one but if Edwards felt like it was too much on his arm and he was looking out for the kid then who can blame him? If they win that game and he wins game two they would be set obviously and he would have looked like a genius anyway. If they had thrown Norris someone would have complained that he was throwing without the proper rest. I guess when you are coaching the #1 prospect in the country it means that somebody is going to question every decision you make. Pitch him, rest him, either way someone is upset and thinks you're an idiot. My understanding on the second game was that SH got a lead and they tried to pull Norris out of the game with his pitch count still really low, thinking that he could start the night game and still have several innings in him. When the game got tight again towards the end they had to go back to him to keep from getting eliminated. Obviously that was not the plan but one they felt they needed to go with to stay alive in the tournament. I also would be very surprised if there is anyone other than Edwards making the decisions on when/how to use Daniel. Obviously their coaching staff is doing something right to have started the year 9-7 and wind up finishing the year in the State Tournament. Congrats to the SH boys and all the teams that made it this far.

Game Two Jeff 10 West 9 It was a great game. Back and forth all night. JC was up 4-0. Then West cut it to 4-3, then took the lead 7-4. Jeff got back up 8-7 only to see West tie it at 8-8. Collins hit a 2 run shot in the top of the 7th to make it 10-8. West had the bases loaded with Lee up with two outs in the bottom half but Jeff got him to strike out to end the game at 10-9.

Johnson City Press article says he threw between 130-140 pitches. How does anybody know that "Edwards didn't think it through" ? Were you in the dugout asking Dino how he felt after he came off the field each inning? Do you know how many times he has thrown over 100 pitches in a game this year? Or how many poles he runs for conditioning? Until I am there everyday, watching his conditioning and charting his bullpens, how can I know how to handle him better than the guys at SH? The answer is I can't. No one is more qualified to make that decision than the people who are giving so many hours a week to helping those guys get better. Look at Dino's quote in the paper to know how he felt, "I was starting to feel it in my calf. My arm feels great. I feel like I could go out there and throw again right now.” Both coaches and several fans I have talked to said they thought Dino's velocity was the best they had ever seen it. That is a testament of how well Edwards and the coaching staff have taken care of him and brought him along to this point.

Also, I have had the opportunity to observe Coach Edwards and his coaching style and anyone who thinks that he cares more about winning than he does about his players is not very smart. Its an absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous statement. I have played for and been around several baseball coaches at various levels and I can honestly say I have seen few who care about their boys more than Coach Edwards does. He is a good man and a good role model for those kids.

Coach Shelton hit the nail on the head. Its a tough call to pull a kid in a no hitter and anybody who knows Norris will tell you he is a competitor and won't let the ball be taken out of his hand in that situation. As fans, we do not get to know the whole story and I'm sure that the Science Hill coaching staff made the best decision. Remember that COACH Edwards was a pitching coach at the Division One level so I would put more stock in his opinion than any of ours anyway. Daniel has a bright future as anyone can see but it seems to me you guys were more looking to jump on Coach Edwards than anything else. JMO. I'm sure he the coaching staff will see that he gets the proper amount of rest before Region next week. The win last night guaranteed them of making region the way I understand it, so its not like the game was for nothing, even though it was not an elimination game as you say. They would have been in an elimination game had they lost that one. Now they are set up well and Daniel can come back in time for Region.

Love those bears? Haha. Just FYI, I'm a Jeff County alumni and was there to watch Jeff. Just stating what I saw since everyone was talking about it. But I am impressed with what Traywick has done at SC. The Sevier County we played against was never anything like what he has turned that program into.

I was also at the game last night and thought it was one of the better games I have seen all season. Keep in mind that was the #1 seed against the #6 seed, which should tell you how emotional and tight the games will be for the whole district tournament. I thought it was great throw by the Sevier CF. Looked from my vantage point that the catcher barely missed him on the way through and the runner barely missed the plate as well. As the two were going back fighting for the plate they simply got tangled up. Both players shoved and it appeared to me that the Jeff County kid took a half swing at the Sevier Catcher. The catcher put his elbow up and shoved back in self-defense. The real hero in the siutation in my opinion was Ausmus, the on-deck batter, who came up and grabbed the Jeff County runner and held him back. It was this move that really diffused the situation. Hats off as well to the Sevier County bench for keeping their cool as no players left their bench. I wish I could say the same for the Jeff bench but as we have said it was a VERY emotional game. Coach Traywick was not hot over the play as some thought, he was hot b/c the field umpire had come in signaling the he was ejecting both players. Obviously this would cost them two district games and my reaction would have been the same if not worse. In the end, I think they got it right. Confining both players and coaches while not costing them district was, in my opinion, the smartest thing to do. Good luck to everybody in district this week.

I think everyone in the league postponed their games except for Morristown East and Cocke County. East won 11-6. First four innnings the sun was shining then had about a 45 minute rain delay in top of the 5th. It was tied 4-4 when the rain hit and East wound up winning 11-6 after the rain stopped.

First thing, Halls is that good. I got to watch them last week and they have been playing really good baseball. Second, Casey Taylor is one of the best coaches in East Tennessee in my opinion. When the Jeff County job comes open this summer I hope they go after him. His teams overachieve almost every year. Everyone I talked to said that Clinton would be bad this year and he goes out and finds some new guys and coaches them up and they start the year 8-2. I would be glad to have him down there if I were you guys.

Jefferson County beat East 12-11 yesterday. Morristown West beat Cocke County 7-0.

Morristown West at Cocke County was rained out. East beat Jeff 8-1.

Old IMAC: Morristown West Morristown East Jefferson County Cocke County Greeneville Cherokee New IMAC: South Doyle Sevier County Seymour Morristown West Morristown East Jefferson County Cocke County Cherokee

Opening week of IMAC play looks like this: March 15 South Doyle @ Seymour West @ Cocke County Jeff @ East Cherokee @ Sevier County March 16 Seymour @ South Doyle Cocke County @ West East @ Jeff Sevier County @ Cherokee

I would expect Morristown East and West to be strong again and all three new teams will be up towards the top as well. You said top four, I would say Sevier County and Seymour and East and West. Top player will be Kirkland from South Doyle more than likely.

Certainly the best post I have read on here all year and its been needed for quite a while. Hopefully we can start moving in the right direction. Just one thing #52, don't you want to go to the best academy? Why not Westpoint? Continue the tradition of the Clamon brothers. Go Army! Beat Navy! Go Pats!

Personally, I think this game is huge for Jeff. County. If you look at the schedule, JC has to go on the road and play the #1 and #2 teams in the state the next two weeks (DB and Oak Ridge). It would be a lot better to be 2-1 going into those two games than 1-2.

I agree, from what I've heard if we can stop East's running game we'll be fine. I was at the JC/East game last year and it was one of the better games of the year, exciting for both sides. Anybody know who East has played in their first two games?