By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial Panthers picked up their first District 7-3A baseball series sweep on Tuesday as they held off a White County rally to win 5-4.
Tuesday’s win in Crossville follows an 8-7 comeback victory by the Panthers Monday Sparta, where they trailed 6-0 after two innings.
“We’ve had tight games all year long,” said Stone Memorial head coach Trent Stokes. “I’ve lost some hair and what I do have left is going gray. We’re finally starting to turn that corner; we had a front-loaded schedule but didn’t find that that winning edge. But the last two nights we’ve tightened some things up and gotten a little bit more grid about us.”
Stone Memorial senior pitcher Talyn Hurd went the distance Tuesday, striking out 6 batters in the complete-game victory. Hurd also closed out the bottom of the seventh inning on Monday.
“He’s been one of our dudes for 4 years,” said Stokes. “We knew we could put him in last night and get that shut down, and that he’d have enough grit to turn around and go the distance tonight. He put the team on his back to make sure we got the wins.”
White County shortstop Austin Pionke led the Warriors at the plate, where he went 2-4 with two doubles and a run scored on Tuesday.
Stone Memorial opened the contest with two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Cade Wilson and a passed ball to score Kyle Hinch to lead 2-0. The Panthers extended their advantage in the bottom of the second as Peyton Roberts scored on another passed ball before a Hinch single to left scored Cole Hinch and Tanner Bowman, making the score 5-0 after two innings.
White County answered with three runs in the top of the third inning via singles by Cole Gentry and Clay Brewington to cut Stone Memorial’s lead to 5-3 after three innings.
The Warriors threatened again in the top of the seventh inning as a Pionke double scored Gentry to bring White County within a run at 5-4 with no outs. With the tying run on third base, Hurd went to work to force two pop outs and struck out the final batter to seal Stone Memorial’s 5-4 victory.
The Panthers improve to 2-2 in District 7-3A play and will face Sequoyah on Thursday. White County falls to 2-2 in district action and is scheduled to face Monroe County on Saturday.
