Good luck hitting against Tennessee High’s Cainan Meyers when he’s got a feel for all of his pitches.
On Wednesday night against Unicoi County at Tod Houston Field, Meyers didn’t trust his changeup and wasn’t crazy about his curveball.
No worries. The senior right-hander rode his mid-80s velocity to 14 strikeouts while recording a complete-game victory in the Vikings’ 3-1 defeat of Unicoi County.
Tennessee High improved to 5-0 in the Upper Lakes Conference and 14-3 overall. The Blue Devils fell to 3-5 in the league and 8-10 overall.
“I didn’t really have my changeup,” said Meyers, who improved to 5-2 on the season. “The one time I did throw it, they ended up getting a hit. The curveball, honestly, wasn’t that good either. But locating the fastball was my strong point this game, and my velo stayed pretty good all game (85-86 mph).”
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Ten of Meyers’ strikeouts came with the Blue Devils’ bats on their shoulders. And two of the four hits Meyers’ allowed came via an infield single on a chopper and bloop to right field that bounced off the glove of diving second baseman Chandler Myers. Only one walk was issued by Meyers.
“That’s the way he’s been throwing,” Tennessee High coach Preston Roberts said. “He’s a high-strikeout guy and he’s thrown the ball really well for us all year. He took a couple of tough losses there early in the year against some really good teams – the Miller school, a private school out of Virginia (Charlottesville) that we played at Virginia Tech. We put him up against them and he pitched well.
“And he took another tough loss at the beach (Myrtle Beach). Other than that, he’s been lights-out.”
Meyers helped his cause by scoring Gage Graziano with a two-out single in the first inning.
“Meyers had a big hit in the first,” Roberts said. “Bryson Hutton got our first hit, a ball in the gap there, and got Graz over to third. And then Cainan singles with two outs.”
The Vikings stretched the lead to 3-0 in the second inning thanks to Graziano’s bases-loaded walk and Hutton’s sacrifice fly. Hutton has been swinging the bat well, which has been all the more valuable with Dayne Musick having been lost for the season to a knee injury sustained during the Ripken Experience at Myrtle Beach. Musick, a leadoff batter, was batting around .450 with two home runs.
“Hutton in the two-hole has done a good job finding a way to get on base,” Roberts said. “He’s hitting up there close to .400 and he’s got close to a .500 on-base percentage.”
The Vikings also edged Unicoi County, 2-1, on Monday in Erwin.
“We’re just finding a way to win,” Roberts said. “I told our guys you can’t forget to try to add another one, especially in that game. One run felt like five.”
Unicoi County senior right-hander Chris Chavez got the start on the mound and struggled with command. He allowed two hits, five walks and three runs in 1 1/3 innings before being relieved by Kolby Jones.
A sophomore right-hander coming off a wrist injury, Jones was limited to 60 pitches. He allowed two hits and one walk while striking out eight in 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
“If I’d known 60 pitches was gonna take him as far as it would have, I might would have started him,” Unicoi County coach Chad Gillis said. “It’s one of those issues I’m still trying to be careful with until we know his arm’s in shape to get it done. I don’t want to put him in any type of predicament with his arm health.
“We’re gonna take it easy and increase his workload as we go. We might still be playing if Kolby was at 120 pitches.”
The Blue Devils made things interesting in the seventh. Chavez led off with a single through the middle and Jones followed with a bloop single to right field.
Tanner Berry scored Chavez with a one-out single that put the tying runners on base. But Meyers bounced back with a strikeout and pop-out to end it.
“We had sort of a plan to attack Chavez that last at-bat, but he’s a really good hitter,” Meyers said. “So he ended up knocking one out there for that first base-hit in the last inning. … You can’t win every game by 10 runs. We’ve gone a good job these past two games of stepping up when we need to.”
Tennessee High will host Tuscola (Waynesville, North Carolina) on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Unicoi County will visit Daniel Boone on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Unicoi County 000 000 1 -- 1 4 1
Tennessee High 120 000 x -- 3 4 0
C. Chavez, Jones (2), M. Chavez (6) and Satterly. Cai. Meyers and Lively. W—Cai. Meyers (5-2). L—C. Chavez (2-1).