eagles shut down in region tourney loss

In a disappointing ending to a once promising 2008 baseball season, the Seymour Eagles saw their season come to an abrupt halt Monday night at Don Doyle Field in a 5-0 region tournament loss to the Anderson County Mavericks.

Seymour head coach Scott Norman opted to give senior pitching ace Matt Lynam the go Monday against the District 4-AA runner-up Mavericks on three days rest. Lynam pitched the Eagles to victory last Thursday night in Seymour’s district tournament championship win at Gibbs.

 Lynam started and ended well enough but ran into some middle inning trouble as Anderson County scored two runs in the third with three straight doubles. The Mavericks struck for another double to lead off the fourth and this time followed the two-bagger with a two-run home run over the centerfield fence to take a 4-0 lead. Anderson County scored its fifth run of the night in the fifth on a double steal.

Lynam went the distance for Seymour, allowing nine AC hits while striking out seven. The Seymour senior issued one walk and hit one batter with a pitch.

While Seymour can start thinking about next year, Gibbs, meanwhile, got new life Monday with a region tournament win over Knox-Catholic. Gibbs faced Anderson County Wednesday with the region title on the line. Both Gibbs and Anderson County will advance to Friday night’s sectionals regardless of Wednesday’s outcome. The sectional winners across the state earn a bid to play in next week’s state tournament in Murfreesboro.

Seymour, which streaked all the way to the state tournament semifinals a year ago, can only think about what could have been after stranding 11 batters on base and ending both the fifth and sixth innings Monday night with the bases loaded.

The Eagles, which won 15 straight games during one midseason stretch, lost their fifth game in the last three weeks. After dropping games to Catholic and Maryville during the final week of the regular season, Seymour caught fire again and won the District 3-AA Tournament in impressive fashion, beating Alcoa twice before rolling over Gibbs, 4-1, behind the Lynam gem in the tournament championship game last week.