JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - It was an inning that Nate Stoots will long remember. Abingdon would rather forget it.
The Science Hill sophomore highlighted a 10-run second inning with a two-run single and a long grand slam well over the 400-foot sign in center field in a 14-1 victory over Abingdon on Wednesday night at TVA Credit Union Ballpark.
"That is the hardest ball I ever hit," said Stoots, of his fourth home run of the season.
He certainly impressed Science Hill head coach Ryan Edwards, who has seen his share of home runs at the same stadium that houses the Johnson City Doughboys of the Appalachian League.
"I hadn't seen a home run like that since Kyle Oullette in 2014 against Sevier County," said Edwards, who led Science Hill to the Class AAA state championship in 2021. "I am saying I remember those home runs when they are hit like that, you don't forget those."
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One night after falling to archrival Dobyns-Bennett, 2-1, the Hilltoppers brought out the bats against Abingdon, banging out 10 hits and scoring 10 runs in the second and another four in the third.
"You see a sophomore hit a ball over the 400-foot sign in a minor league park wall and it looked like it was still traveling. He got all of it," Abingdon head coach Mark Francisco said. "They are a talented team and they were coming off a defeat to a good Dobyns-Bennett team last night and they didn't hit it very well, Boy, they sure made up for it today."
It was the first loss of the season for Abingdon (10-1), which got a pair of two-out first inning singles by Beckett Dotson and Aidan Woods before Science Hill starter Hagen Gibson worked out of trouble. Those were the only hits for the Falcons, which did draw six walks against three relievers over the 1 1/3 innings to get one run on the board.
"Anytime you play a really good team and they are probably triple or quadruple our enrollment, but they are well-coached. They have just got a really good tradition and we came here to try to get better," Francisco said. "We were exposed today in a lot of areas so that gives us some things to work on."
Science Hill took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a two-run single into center field by Stoots off starting pitcher Beckett Dotson.
"I was looking fastball and I got it and just hit up the middle, went with the pitch," said Stoots, who saw limited at-bats as a freshman last season.
Dotson appeared destined to avoid more trouble, but a grounder back to the mound turned into an error instead of a potential double play.
"We took advantage of that," Stoots said. "We try to take advantage of mistakes and just staying confident at the plate."
That would be followed later in the second by another fielding miscue as the mistakes piled up, leading the bases for Stoots.
"That mistake and a couple of mistakes kind of took us out of it," Francisco said. "That is a play we usually make, that is the thing, it is kind of routine. I thought Beckett made pitches to get us out, but we will learn from it, we will try to regroup and try to get better."
Stoots put it out of reach with his next swing of the bat.
"He has been getting into some baseballs here all season long, but he has really been swinging a hot bat here in the last week or two," Edwards said. 'He got a few at-bats as a freshman last year that gave him some experience and he has taken off from that this year and he has pretty much been an every day guy for us."
He certainly showed why in his next at-bat, blasting a fastball from relief pitcher Elijah Parks over the 20-foot wall in center field for a grand slam to complete the 10-run second inning assault.
"It was nice," Stoots said. "I knew a fastball was coming on the grand slam and I just stayed back and hit it."
Edwards recalled seeing a few other balls sail over that fence.
"That was a blast. I have seen Will Craig do that. I have seen Kyle Oullette do that and I have heard that Paul Hoilman did that and I know there have been a few people like [Gary] 'Shorty' Adams," he said. "That was a heck of a shot right there."
Stoots was especially excited to play against the Falcons, many of whom are his baseball friends.
"I play with a lot of these kids in travel ball so I know a lot of them so it is a big game for me," he said. "It is really fun, I have worked hard for this.
Science Hill (10-5) added four more in the third, highlighted by a two-run single by Jackson Berry. Landon Smelser, Josh Marmo and Tucker Lewis joined Stoots with two hits apiece. Marmo also had a double for the Hilltoppers, which regrouped after that 2-1 loss to the rival Indians.
"I thought our hitters stayed locked in today and came back from a day where we didn't get hardly any runs," Edwards said. "We only scored one run yesterday, but we have been scoring a lot of runs here lately so we were able to get back on track today."
Abingdon, which trailed Science Hill 8-0 last year before whittling down the final result to 13-8, was unable to make that happen in this one, as Gibson allowed just two hits, retiring the final eight batters he faced until leaving with two outs in the fourth.
"He has been pitching pretty well for us as far as commanding his stuff and he got his change-up going today," Edwards said. "He was able to get some fly balls going."
Three Science Hill relievers walked six batters over the next two innings, with the Falcons getting on the board when Jett Humphreys scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth to avoid getting blanked.
"Even in the last inning I was proud we were able to find a way to score a run and not get shut out," Francisco said. "I am blessed with good young men who do things right, but we have to get better."
Abingdon's next opportunity to do that will come Saturday when the Falcons face Oak Ridge (Tenn.) at Dobyns-Bennett's J.Fred Johnson Stadium in Kingsport at 1 p.m.
"Obviously they are very talented team, a very talented program. I was just telling Coach Edwards I would have liked to given them a better game. I don't think we helped them tonight except giving them some confidence at the plate," Francisco said. "We left a lot of runners on in those five innings and had some opportunities, but we just kind of put ourselves in a bad spot and they took advantage of every mistake we made.
"That is baseball sometimes. We have got to regroup and try to get back after it, get back to practice tomorrow and try to not waste this defeat."
Abingdon 000 01 - 0 1 2
Science Hill 0(10)4 0x - 14 10 0
Dotson, Parks (2), Grubb (3), Reed (4) and Hawkins. Gibson, Taylor (4), Craft (4), Royston (5) and Vermillion. W-Gibson; L-Dotson. HR-Stoots (SH) 2nd, 3 on.