BRISTOL, Tenn. - It was cold and windy at Tod Houston Memorial Field on Thursday evening.
Perfect baseball weather? Not really, but Cainan Meyers wasn't going to complain.
"I would rather it be warm, but most of the time it doesn't really affect me too much," said Meyers, senior pitcher and catcher for the Vikings. "Once I get focused on the game I am fine...It was pretty cold, my face is still freezing."
Meyers' single started a three-run second inning and Meyers struck out all six batters he faced over the final two innings to lift Tennessee High to a 5-1 victory over Chapmanville, W.Va., as part of the Johnny Whited Memorial Tournament, a three-day event spread across several locations.
"It was nice to play. Anybody wants to play," Tennessee High head coach Preston Roberts said. "It is tough. I just told our outfielders you have really got to fight the ball, it is you and the ball and the wind so you have really got to focus. They did a great job. Josh [Sizemore] got plenty of work out there in right field and that is where a lot of the balls were going and that is one of the toughest places to play in the wind so he did a really good job.
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Tennessee High (11-3) had been slated to play Chapmanville on Thursday night in Kingsport, but the weather forecast forced changes to be made, allowing the Vikings to host the Tigers when the sun was still partially out at 5 p.m.
"It is similar to the weather we have been having so I looked at the forecast and sort of knew what we were getting into," Chapmanville head coach Josh Rakes said. "It is typical of what we have played in all year."
Jimmy Phipps, who was the Tennessee High football quarterback in the fall, scattered five hits over five innings to pick up the win. The Tigers put 22 balls in play, and 15 of them went to the right side.
"We do work a lot on backside hitting," said Rakes, whose Tigers are located about three hours from Bristol. "Unfortunately our offense is still sort of sporadic for us right now. We seem to be able to get some runners on, but we are waiting for the big timely hits to drive them in. It seems like we are struggling to find those."
With Tennessee High playing without Dayne Musick, who is out for the season with a knee injury, and Ashton Leonard, who is slated to undergo an MRI, the Vikings have had to change their method of getting runs on the board. They had eight hits, all singles, manufacturing three runs in the second and two more in the fifth.
"Just another great start from Jimmy. That is where it starts," Roberts said. "I tell our guys, especially with the injuries we have got to Dayne and Ashton who are very explosive athletes that can sort of change the game on their own, we have got to understand we may not win every game 15-0 like we have in years past. We have got to execute our offense a little differently.
"What I like is how our guys have responded to that. They are being unselfish, doing what they need to do, sac bunting, executing offensively. When we got that 3-spot that really got us the lead there it was all with two outs and not only that, but it was with two outs from the bottom of our order who is relatively new to our lineup...
"Just really proud of how locked in we are with handling adversity from injuries. We are going to be just fine."
Meyers, batting in the cleanup spot in the lineup, started the second with a single. Chandler Myers also singled, and pinch-runner Carter Keesee scored on an errant throw to left field while stealing third base. Myers moved to second and scored on a single by Cooper Harris, who scored himself on an RBI single by Preston Feagins, who has replaced Musick at the top of the lineup.
"We had to change up the lineup a little bit, but we have guys stepping up like Cooper Harris dh-ing, he had a couple of hits, he did really well," Meyers said. "We have got guys to step up with those guys out."
Chapmanville (3-6), whose state tournament basketball team defeated George Wythe in a tournament at Virginia High in February, scored once in a fourth inning started with a single by 6-foot-6 first baseman Andrew Farley, who moved to third on a walk and balk and scored on a ground ball out by Ian Plumley.
"He is a senior, he has been a four-year starter for me," said Rakes, whose Tigers will face Daniel Boone today and Jefferson County on Saturday. "Hits it well, when he barrels it it has a little bit of a different sound to it. He hit six or seven home runs last year and has yet to get one yet this year, but he is a guy I need to drive some runs in for me."
Braylon Moore pitched well for the Tigers, scattering eight hits, with two more runs scoring in the fifth. Bryson Hutton led off with a single, reached second on a ground ball, stole third and scored when the ball sailed into left field. The final run scored on an RBI single by Myers, who had the only multi-hit game for either team.
"I thought Braylon pitched really good. He is our number one guy, he threw well today, he competed and battled," said Rakes, whose Tigers had a three-game win streak snapped. "They were very disciplined at the plate, I think my pitching coach said they had two swings and misses all game. Probably the most disciplined team we have seen, I thought Braylon competed and battled. He didn't do a great job early of getting his breaking stuff over, he was dependent on fastballs and then they put it in play."
Meyers replaced Phipps in the sixth and promptly struck out all six batters he faced over the next two innings.
"It really just starts with attacking the zone early, but most of the time I am looking for strikeouts," Meyers said. "It is a lot of fun. A little bit more of a role than I had last year when I was like a 2 or 3 guy. I enjoy it a lot, going out and starting big games."
Roberts said that Meyers - who shares ace pitching duties with Kaleb Feathers - has pitched well against top-notch opponents all season, including Miller School from Charlottesville and an opponent from Pennsylvania while in Myrtle Beach, S.C., while also picking up key Upper Lakes Conference victories.
"Cainan had thrown against some really good competition," Roberts said. "He is a guy that can rack up a lot of strikeouts really quick. I think he was at like 33 strikeouts coming into the game so he is probably already at 40 strikeouts halfway through the season."
Tennessee High will host University High today at 5 p.m. and then look ahead to next Monday and Tuesday when the Vikings face league foe Unicoi County on back-to-back days as the Vikings continue to adjust to baseball without a pair of productive hitters in Musick and Leonard.
"We are kind of doing everything now, it's not just sit back and wait for a double, it is just trying to manufacture runs," Roberts said. There is probably going to be a lot of 5-1, 5-2 kind of games and hopefully we are on the winning end of those."
Meyers wants to do his part to help Tennessee High get back to the Class AAA state tournament for a third year in a row.
"We want to get back there and go all the way hopefully and win a championship," Meyers said. "That is the goal."
Chapmanville 000 100 0 - 1 5 3
Tennessee High 030 020 x - 5 8 0
Moore, Plumley and Lucas. Phipps, Meyers (6) and Meyers, Lively (6). W-Phipps; L-Moore; S-Meyers. HR-none.
**
Johnny Whited Memorial Tournament
Friday
at home locations
University High at Tennessee High, 5 p.m.
Atherton, Ky. at Dobyns-Bennett, 5 p.m.
Chapmanville, W.Va. at Daniel Boone, 5 p.m.
at TVA Credit Union Stadium, Johnson City
DW Daniel, S.C. at Science Hill, 5 p.m.
at Hunter Wright Stadium, Kingsport
Spring Valley, W.Va. vs. Easley, S.C., 1:30 p.m.
Sullivan East vs. Greeneville, 4 p.m.
Pikeville, Ky., vs. Jefferson County, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
at Hunter Wright Stadium, Kingsport
Atherton, Ky. vs. Spring Valley, W.Va., 11 a.m.
Jefferson County vs. Chapmanville, W.Va., 1:30 p.m.
Jefferson County vs. University High, 4 p.m.
at TVA Credit Union Stadium, Johnson City
Easley, S.C. vs. Science Hill, noon
Sullivan East vs. DW Daniel, S.C., 2:30 p.m.
at Daniel Boone High School, Gray
Pikeville, Ky. at Daniel Boone, noon
Elizabethton vs. Pikeville, Ky., 2:30 p.m.