Eagles Stay Perfect in District Play

Seymour’s baseball team maintained a perfect record in district play this week. Defensive lapses gave up big innings in losses to non-district foes. SHS split two games with AAA Heritage and took a mercy kill to 3A South Doyle. The Eagle’s travel to district foe Gibbs on Tuesday. Seymour 10, Alcoa 2 The Eagles remained perfect in district play taking their second game in four days from the Alcoa Tornadoes. Senior southpaw Nick Manis threw his second complete game in picking up the win. The teams held each other in check for the three opening innings before SHS strung together some hits in the fourth. A lead-off hit by Adam Gossett was followed by a sacrifice bunt from Zack Smith that moved Gossett to 2nd. Manis connected for a base hit in support of the cause. With runners on the corners Kevin Koeneman singled in the first run.  Logan McNulty bunted and legged out a base hit. Aaron Lambert doubled to collect two rbi’s.  Chad Isbill picked up a rbi single for a 4-0 SHS lead. Alcoa knocked in one run in the top of the sixth to get on the scoreboard. The Eagles responded with the big sticks. Sophomore Andy Trentham uncorked a two run homer that scored Isbill. Gossett took first after getting plunked, then Smith singled to set up Manis for a fence clearing 3 run round tripper. McNulty hit a single for an RBI that gave the Eagles a six- run sixth and a 10-1 lead. Manis allowed one run in the seventh to pick up his second win. Seymour 10, Heritage 6 SHS avenged an earlier loss to Heritage by limiting their mistakes and using timely hitting to capitalize on HHS miscues. Heritage picked up where they left off last week, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first. Pryor singled and stole second before Smith scored him. In the third Smith led off with a double. Manis reached on a walk. Koeneman played for the sacrifice but Heritage didn’t make the play and set up McNulty, Lambert, and Trentham for RBI’s and a 5-2 lead. SHS picked up a single run in the fourth when Manis was walked for the third time in the game and Koeneman scored him with a double. The Eagles picked up four more runs in the fifth keyed by Andy Trentham getting plunked at the plate. Heritage 9, Seymour 6 In a tragic comedy of errors, Heritage stole one from Seymour Wednesday night. SHS out hit Heritage 12-4 and starter David Lunsford gave up only four earned runs, but Eagle errors in the second ruined the night. A scoreless first was followed by the game-shattering inning. Three fielding errors and a Lunsford balk resulted in eight HHS runs, five of them unearned. Seymour attempted a rally in the third. Lambert was walked and singles by Trentham, Pryor and Smith did the damage for SHS as they closed to 8-3. Giving up a run in the bottom of the fifth, Seymour mounted another challenge in the top of the sixth. Pryor and Gossett got singles and Zack Smith got his second RBI single of the game but they still trailed by three runs. Unable to get anything going in the seventh, Seymour fell one game below .500 in the loss. South Doyle 12, Seymour 0 Tuesday’s home game snapped Seymour’s three game win streak as the Eagles were blanked at home in a mercy rule loss by South Doyle. The Cherokees opened with a Scott Zurcher lead-off home run that signaled the things to come as South Doyle held a 3-0 lead after one. Three errors over the second and third contributed to three more SD scores and a 6-0 lead. SD used hit and run tactics to score three more in the fifth. Five singles and a hit batsman led to the final three runs and the shortened end to the game under the ten run mercy rule. Rutledge 17, Seymour 1 SHS left the nest to attend a feather pulling at Rutledge. The Pioneers victimized the Eagles in non-district play Friday night.