seymour stands tall in district 3-aa tourney

In yet another intense, thrilling battle of the Eagles for a District 3-AA Championship, it was Seymour and senior pitcher Matt Lynam that had the necessary ingredients to pull out a 4-1 road victory at Gibbs Tuesday night for the 2008 district tournament crown.

It marks the second time in three years Seymour has defeated Gibbs for the District 3-AA Tournament championship. Last year Gibbs edged Seymour in the tournament title game at Seymour High School but SHS bounced back to knock off Gibbs a week later in the region tournament.

Both Seymour and Gibbs will advance to the Region 2-AA Tournament. Seymour will host the District 4-AA championship game loser on Monday at Don Doyle Field. Gibbs will travel to face the District 4-AA tournament champion.

The Seymour offense gave senior ace Lynam an early cushion Tuesday night when sophomore middle infielder Mark Funderburke lit the scoreboard with a solo home run and senior Todd Ogle struck for a RBI single to put the visitors up 2-0 in the second inning.

Sophomore sensation Keegan Newport added to the Eagles’ early advantage with a two-run blast in the third inning to make it 4-0.

In his second start in a week—he pitched last Thursday in a district tournament game vs. Alcoa—after missing the last three weeks of the regular season with a case of mononucleosis, Lynam was the star among stars.

The crafty Eagles’ right-hander collected eight strikeouts while allowing seven Gibbs hits. He also issued two walks and hit three batters in a 114 pitch, complete game performance.

Lynam said his pitching arm was actually a little spent before the game started because of lingering affects from last Thursday’s outing against Alcoa. The laid back senior said his sore right arm was never an issue though, thanks to the energy radiating from a raucous crowd and the constant motivation from SHS head coach Scott Norman.

“It was pretty intense,” said Lynam. “The crowd, the players, the umpires, the coaches, everybody there was so into the game. I was pumped up from all the emotion.

“My arm didn’t feel as good (during the game) as it usually does,” Lynam added. “It was still kind of sore from Thursday night but I was in a zone. I never really let it faze me. It was just a great game be a part of.”

The tension escalated for Lynam in the second, third and fourth innings, as Gibbs loaded the bases in each frame. Accept for a third inning Gibbs’ run, Lynam escaped all three of the bases loaded jams. He got some help in the second inning when Ogle made a spectacular defensive play in the hole at shortstop to end the threat. Senior centerfielder Drew Fox caught a deep fly ball in the fourth with the bases loaded and one out. Fox threw a laser to senior catcher Wes Walker at home plate to complete the double play on a bang-bang play at the plate. With two outs and the bases loaded in the third, Lynam tagged out the Gibbs runner headed to first base after fielding a short tapper up the middle.

Lynam stranded eight Gibbs base runners in the game.

At one point with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Norman looked particularly animated during a trip to the mound to meet with Lynam and Walker. The Seymour coach had been going back-and-forth with the umpires as the tension in the air reached an all-time high with Gibbs’ runners standing on each base and his pitcher appearing to be in some trouble, standing on an island in the middle of the whole surreal scene.

“I was in shock,” said Lynam. “I didn’t have anything to say at that point. I think (Coach Norman) was yelling at the umpire and it looked like he was yelling at me.

Walker, who finished 4-for-4 with four singles on the night, said he thinks his coach was just using a motivational tactic of some kind.

“Oh yeah, he was pretty fired up,” said Walker. “I guess he was just trying to get Matt fired up and trying to get us motivated. It was pretty intense.”

With the win Seymour improves to 25-6 on the season.