walker’s three homers doom tornadoes

Seymour senior catcher Wes Walker unleashed with fury on District 3-AA rival Alcoa Tuesday night to secure a co-conference regular season championship for the Eagles in a 13-3, five-inning route of the Tornadoes at Don Doyle Field.

Walker, a Tennessee Tech signee, hit three multi-run homers to help SHS head coach Scott Norman and the Eagles’ baseball program collect yet another regular season district crown. Norman has directed Seymour to at least a share of nine consecutive District 3-AA regular season titles.

Norman turned in arguably his best coaching job this year, leading a team that lost six seniors from a state final four run a year ago. Seymour’s win Tuesday improved the Eagles to 20-4 overall and 9-1 in the conference.

Norman agreed that this year’s success has been extra satisfying.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to be over .500,” said the Eagles’ coach. “We had some guys coming back from last year but they were mostly known as good hitters.

“We only had one pitcher—Matt Lynam—with five varsity innings to his credit,” Norman continued. “We knew Matt was going to be strong but we had to have some other (pitchers) like Todd Ogle, Keegan Newport and Brandon Timmerman step up and come through for us.”

The Eagles’ coach praised the team’s seniors for displaying the leadership and selflessness it takes for such a young squad to enjoy this kind of success.

“I’ve got a great group of seniors who helped us achieve (the district title) with exceptional leadership,” said Norman.

 “Wes Walker kind of leads by example with his hard work and commitment. Drew Fox is a vocal leader and an excellent baseball player who kind of brings a football mentality to the team. Spencer Smith, Andrew Escolonia, Taylor Sawyer and Matt Lynam are all seniors who have really stepped up and taken a leadership role on this team and helped us get to where we are.”

Norman said Walker’s big night Tuesday in the Eagles’ conference-clinching victory over Alcoa was fitting.

“He’s always been one of the best catchers in East Tennessee,” Norman remarked. “Everything is finally clicking for him as a hitter. He’s gone from an above-average hitter to where he is now—hitting around .500 and striking out one time in every 38 at-bats.

“He’s had a tremendous senior season. He really came through for us (against Alcoa),” Norman added.

Walker now has eight home runs in 2008 with 37 RBIs. He had two two-run shots sandwiched around a three-run bomb to doom the Tornadoes’ upset bid Tuesday night.

Walker’s Class of 2008 teammate Todd Ogle went all five innings to register the complete-game win, allowing just four hits on the night.

After Alcoa took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Walker and the Eagles chased the Tornadoes out of town with three scores in both the first and second innings, two runs in the fourth and four runs in the fifth, thanks to a two-run blast from heralded freshman Cody Fox.

With Seymour and Gibbs now tied for the conference lead with matching 9-1 marks and no regular season games remaining on the docket for either club, the respective teams’ coaches will assemble at a local Shoneys restaurant Thursday morning and flip a coin to decide which group of Eagles will take the No. 1 seed into the upcoming district Tournament. Both the No. 1 seed and the No. 2 seed will host first-round tournament games.

Go to www.seymourherald.com for continued updates on the Seymour Eagles’ and their quest to get back to Murfreesboro to compete for a state championship.