Casey Allen wasted no time getting the Jefferson County Pirates baseball team off and running on Friday evening in the first round of the ETHSBL playoffs against a loud South Doyle at Smokies Stadium.
With a runner on in the top of the first, Allen hit a ball in the left-center gap that seemed to take one hop and hit off the porch in left for a ground-rule double, scoring a run.
However, whether it was a miscommunication or taking his eye off the ball, the first base umpire signaled a home run, sending the Knights in a frenzy and giving Jeff County a two-run lead. Whether upset by the call or just overmatched, South Doyle laid down after that as the Pirates cruised to a 10-1 victory.
“It was good,” Jeff County coach Zach Reese said. “With him (Garrett Owens) on the mound, you just need two or three runs, and we feel good on the mound. So, right out of the shoot to get those runs, was big for us. It was a tone setter, and we just rolled right along.”
It was Allen’s first home run of the season.
With the score 3-0 in the fifth after a Garrett Owens sacrifice bunt in the third scored a run, a 13-pitch at bat from the nine-hole hitter Isaac Lawson resulted in a laser down the third-base line to make it 4-0.
Owens, the starting pitcher in the game, helped his own cause again when he laid down a bunt that scored two runs when the South Doyle pitcher threw the ball past the first baseman.
A Tanner Woods sacrifice fly ended the scoring in the fifth and made it 7-0.
Two errors in the sixth scored two more runs and then a bases loaded walk in the seventh made it 10-1.
“If you come watch us play, that’s our offense,” Reese said. “We run a lot, we bunt a lot and we do the little things to try and speed them up. And we did that a few times where they threw the ball away.”
Starting on the mound, Owens pitched a complete game, allowing just one run on a home run in the sixth inning.
Owens struck out three and continued his masterful season on the mound for the Pirates, moving to 3-0 on the season and a sub 1.50 ERA.
“We knew what we were going to get out of him,” Reese said. “We’ve seen that for three years now. That was the hope, to only have to use him tonight. That was big not having to use anybody else for the next few games. Garrett has put us in position to be set up for the next few games.”
After the home run call in the first inning call in the first, the South Doyle Knights were on edge throughout the rest of the game.
After a Braden Ott home run in the sixth made it 8-1, the Knights began to chatter at Owens on the mound. Logan Rosenberger was next to the plate and hit a screamer at back to the mound that Owens caught. After catching the ball, Owens flashed the ball to the South Doyle dugout, resulting in more chatter from the Knights team and led to a player ejection from South Doyle.
While the Knights seemed rattled, the Pirates were even keeled, not letting anything affect them.
“They’re in our league so we know that they are chippy and like to run their mouths so our guys were ready for it and can handle it” Reese said. “It was just a well-played game for us all the way around. That was probably one of the better games we’ve played.”
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