In his second quality start in as many tries this young baseball season, Seymour High School senior pitcher Matt Lynam (1-1) picked up the result he was looking for Monday evening in a 10-0 six-inning shutout win over visiting Heritage at Seymour’s picturesque Don Doyle Field.
The Eagles (3-1) were scheduled to host Knox-Central Tuesday afternoon (3:30 p.m. first pitch). Seymour will host William Blount on Thursday (5:30 p.m. first pitch). The Eagles will go on the road to face bitter county foe Pigeon Forge on Friday (6:00 p.m. first pitch) and will wrap up the first full week of regular season baseball on Saturday with an afternoon (2:30 p.m. first pitch) game at triple-A Oak Ridge.
Lynam, who registered eight strikeouts and allowed just two hits to improve to 1-1 on the season Monday against the Mountaineers, is expected to get his next start this weekend at Oak Ridge.
“Matt’s throwing the ball really well,” said SHS head coach Scott Norman. “He has 19 strikeouts in two games and he’s only allowed three walks. I think his ERA is under one right now.
“He looked very good (against Heritage),” Norman added. “There were a couple of (college) scouts at the game watching him pitch against Heritage and he didn’t disappoint. I’ve been impressed with what he’s been able to give us in his first two starts.”
Lynam was the hard-luck loser in his first outing last week in the Eagles’ season-opener at Bearden, taking the 5-3 setback against the talented Bulldogs despite hurling 11 strikeouts and keeping the stacked Bearden lineup in check throughout the contest before a late-inning rally put the home team on top for good.
The senior right-hander was never in trouble Monday against Heritage thanks to another solid effort on the mound to go along with a little offensive help from his friends.
Red-hot senior catcher Wes Walker, a Tennessee Tech signee, gave Lynam an early cushion when he crushed his second home run of the year in the first inning, a two-run job that put the Eagles on top 2-0.
Talented sophomore third-baseman Keegan Newport, who hit a grand slam over the weekend in Seymour’s 12-7 Lakeway Classic win over Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett in Morristown, added some insurance when he roped a liner to the gap with the bases loaded and chased in three SHS runs before being thrown out on a slide at third for out three.
Newport’s three-run triple gave the Eagles a 5-0 advantage going into the third.
Seymour struck again in the fifth inning, this time with successive doubles by Newport, Corbin Weaver and senior transfer Andrew Escolona to push its lead out to 9-0.
The Eagles added their final run of the evening in the sixth inning to make it 10-0, effectively ending the contest with the 10-run mercy rule that goes into play when a team has a lead of 10 or more runs after five innings.
Due to the inclement weather last weekend the Eagles played only two games at the annual Lakeway Classic in Morristown. Other than the 12-7 victory over D-B, Seymour also collected a 6-3 win over Greeneville.
A more in-depth wrap up of all of last week's baseball games will be available in this week's edition of the Seymour Herald.