Hayesville hitmen ping, ring and ding Cherokee

By Gary Corsair

Sports Writer

Hayesville bats pinged like a metal detector in an auto salvage yard as the Smoky Mountain Conference leading Yellow Jackets extended their win streak to seven by melting host Cherokee, 23-0.

“I was a little concerned coming off a layoff from spring break how we’d react. We started off a little slow at the plate but the kids came around and hit the ball phenomenally,” Hayesville Coach Joe Jack Sellers remarked.

As is often the case, Hayesville lead-off man Michael “Money” Mauney, the first batter of the game, was the first Yellow Jacket to reach base  and the first to score. Mauney swiped second base and scooted home a booming line drive by Avery Leatherwood.

Cherokee, 2-11 overall, 1-7 in the conference, got out of further trouble when pitcher Cavan Reed left two Hayesville runners stranded.

The score wouldn’t remain 1-0 for long.

Hayesville absolutely erupted, think Mount St. Helens, in the third inning with — would you believe — after the first two men up were retired on a pop-up and a grounder.

Then the Yellow Jackets blew off the roof, knocked down the walls and leveled the landscape with a 12-run explosion that would have made Robert Oppenheimer proud.

The carnage began when Reed plunked Leatherwood on the helmet. Courtesy runner Peyton “Catch Me If You Can” McGaha promptly stole second base and Cade Denton joined the running redhead on the base paths with an infield single that resembled a fielder’s choice gone wrong due to a bad throw. Dakota Matheson joined his brothers when Reed hit him on the thigh, which would have been a good idea considering that “Dakota the Unloada” entered the game with a .476 batting average and team-high 10 runs.

Then again, it’s never wise to load the bases when Kyle Lunsford is due up. Sure enough, “Krushin’ Kyle” rocketed the ball to deep right center and everyone scored on the three-RBI single.

A 4-0 lead would have been more than enough for Hayesville’s exceptional pitchers, but the hit parade continued with consecutive RBI singles by Logan Caldwell, Tate Roberts, Mauney, Braxton Cherry and Cade Caruso.

Reed was mercifully lifted with Hayesville’s cruise control set on 9-0. The Yellow Jackets weren’t finished stinging.

Leatherwood welcomed Cherokee freshmen hurler Jonathan Saylor to the Braves nightmare with a prodigious blast to right field that enabled the best catcher in the conference to leg out a triple. Next, Denton stung the cowhide with an RBI single. He scored when Matheson creamed a pitch into center field. Lunsford laced a single for his fourth RBI of the inning to give Hayesville a 13-0 lead before Cherokee obtained the third out on a pop-up 14 batters after the Braves recorded out No. 2 about 20 minutes earlier.

Speaking of outs, Hayesville’s mighty mound-men didn’t just mow down Cherokee’s batters, the Yellow Jackets pitchers — all five of them — plowed their hosts under.

Starting pitcher Cherry struck out two, stranded two and posted a goose egg. Caruso was even more impressive. He struck out the side.

Denton, Chance Hughes and Kendall Boyer all looked good in their shutout-preserving inning as Sellers elected to give all five of his starters an inning.

“Pitched great, great defense all around,” Sellers said. “Basically we want to get the kids some innings, get them back on the mound.”

The downy-brook was the fourth consecutive double-digit output by Hayesville, 7-1 overall, 7-0 conference, and the second time the Yellow Jackets scored more than 20 runs in a game.

Hayesville traveled to Towns County Wednesday for what promised to be one of the toughest games on the season. The Yellow Jackets welcome Cherokee to Hayesville at 4:30 p.m. Friday, April 21.