Major pitches Watertown to best-of-3 series lead over York

May 4—WATERTOWN — Top-seeded Watertown opened the District 5-2A baseball tournament with an 8-0 win over York Institute on Thursday night.

York beat Jackson County in Wednesday's play-in game to earn a best-of-3 bracket with Watertown. The Purple Tigers went for a sweep last night in Jamestown. If the Dragons won, they would play the rubber game at 6 p.m. today at Watertown with the winner advancing to a one-game championship Monday against the winner of the Monterey-Smith County series at the higher seed. Both finalists will advance to the Region 3-2A tournament.

Zeb Major pitched six innings of a three-hit shutout with two walks and six strikeouts. Cyrus Bennett struck out two in retiring the Dragons in order in the seventh.

Watertown scored in every inning but the fifth as the Purple Tigers used bunts, hit-and-runs and steals (four of them) to pester the Dragons.

All eight Watertown hits were singles. Bo Price drove in two runs as he and K.K. West had two hits apiece. West also scored three times.

Blue Devils drop into 7-4A loser's bracket

SMYRNA — Lebanon outhit host Stewarts Creek, but lost to the top-seeded Red Hawks 8-1 Thursday night in the District 7-4A tournament.

Stewarts Creek jumped to a 5-0 lead in the third inning off Case Collins. None of the runs were earned.

Cade Thorne drove in Lebanon's run. Cooper Hays and Tol Swindell each had two of the Blue Devils' eight hits. Stewarts Creek had seven knocks.

The Blue Devils dropped into yesterday's elimination game against LaVergne with the survivor taking on either Smyrna or Cookeville at 2 p.m. today. Stewarts Creek will host Wilson Central at 4:30 p.m. today in the winner's bracket final.

Wildcats outscore Cavaliers 12-10

SMYRNA — At a time of year when pitching usually takes over, Wilson Central's first District 7-4A tournament game was a slugfest with the Wildcats scoring three times in the bottom of the sixth inning to overtake Cookeville 12-10 Thursday at Stewarts Creek.

Central scored on a passed ball and RBIs by Carter Spencer and Gabe Hildabrand as the Wildcats climbed to 22-10.

Cookeville, seeded third and coming off a first-round win over No. 6 LaVergne, jumped to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. No. 2 Central got two runs back in the bottom of the first and went up 7-3 with five in the third. The Cavaliers sent six across the plate to reclaim the lead 9-7 in the top of the fourth. The Wildcats tied the score with two in the bottom of the fourth before the Cavs went back up 10-9 in the top of the fifth.

Central had 10 hits to Cookeville's eight. Ryan Buckner, the starting pitcher who moved from the mound to third base in the fourth inning, homered and drove in three runs for the Wildcats. Hildabrand had no hits but drove in two runs. Caden Webber doubled as he, Buckner and Luke Kinzer each had two hits. Spencer also doubled.

Carson Reed, the third pitcher of the night, earned the win by pitching the final 3 1/3 innings, holding the Cavaliers to their last run on two hits and three walks.

Wilson Central advanced to today's 4:30 p.m. winner's bracket final against No. 1 Stewarts Creek.

Hawks rally in late innings from top of lineup to overtake Hendersonville

MT. JULIET — A four-run fifth inning put Green Hill ahead and the Hawks added two more in the sixth for good measure as the top seed opened District 12-4A tournament play with a 10-6 win over Hendersonville on Thursday night on the Hill.

The teams matched two-run first innings before Green Hill went up 4-2 in the second. Hendersonville scored four in the third to go up 6-4 and the Hawks didn't match until the fifth.

Green Hill's offensive output came primarily from the top half of the lineup as the top four had two hits each, as did No. 7 hitter Logan Barney.Gabe Gray and Grayson Beasley drove in three runs apiece from the top two spots in the lineup on a double and single apiece. Cleanup hitter Dom Waller also doubled as he and No. 3 batter Joey Greenstreet had twohits apiece.

Liam Bowles, the second of three pitchers, worked three scoreless innings for the win, allowing two hits and no walks. Greenstreet gave up Hendersonville's eighth hit in the seventh to finish up. Starter Micah Summar allowed five earned runs on five hits and four walks.

Green Hill advanced to last night's winner's bracket final against Beech with the loser dropping into today's 10 a.m. loser's bracket final. The championship round will begin at 1 p.m. today with the "if necessary" game set for 7 p.m. Monday. The two finalists will advance to the Region 6-4A tournament.

Hendersonville fell into a loser's bracket game yesterday afternoon against Gallatin, coming off an elimination win over Mt. Juliet on Thursday night.

Lebanon opens tournament by run-ruling Smyrna

Lebanon dominated from the first inning on Wednesday night as the Blue Devils opened the District 7-4A tournament by run-ruling visiting Smyrna 12-2 at Brent Foster Field.

The Blue Devils scored five runs in the first inning and duplicated the feat in the third as they advanced to Thursday's contest at host/top seed Stewarts Creek.

Tol Swindell singled home two runs in the first while Evan Driver, Cooper Hays and Will Wright each had RBI singles.

In the third, Brice Njezic singled in a run, Driver drew a bases-loaded walk, Carter Mcpeak was hit by a pitch with the sacks full and Jordan Jewell drove in two on a fielder's choice.

Jewell pitched 4 2/3 innings for the win, allowing both unearned runs on two hits and three walks, Cade Thorne gave up a walk but struck out a Bulldog for the final out in the top of the fifth. Lebanon widened the margin to 10 in the bottom half to end the game.

Njezic and Evyn Underwood each had three hits as they accounted for half of Lebanon's 12 knocks while Driver added two.

Mt. Juliet knocked into 12-4A loser's bracket

MT. JULIET — Mt. Juliet scored first but Hendersonville scored next and ever after Wednesday as the Commanders put the Golden Bears into the District 12-4A loser's bracket with an 11-1 win at Green Hill.

Noah Anderson scored to give Mt. Juliet a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

But Hendersonville scored four times in the bottom half and three in the second to tag the loss on Roman Petricca, who surrendered four hits. But only one of the runs was earned as the Golden Bears committed six errors. Tristan Nguyen tossed two innings and Landon Parman 2/3 innings as the Commandos scored in the fifth to walk off with the run-rule win. The trio allowed seven hits and five earned runs.

Ryan Worden had half of the Golden Bears' four hits.

Mt. Juliet fell into a loser's bracket game Thursday where the Golden Bears' season ended with a loss to Gallatin while Hendersonville faced host/top seed Green Hill that night.