Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Hayesville left field Cade Caruso camps under a Towns County fly ball.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Hayesville’s offense was as cold as the wind gusts that chilled fans who bundled up in winter coats and snuggled under blankets to see the Yellow Jackets fall 4-1 to Towns County.
Hayesville managed just four singles, whiffed seven times and left runners on base in all five innings. The visitor’s lone run came in the fifth frame when Michael Mauney cracked a solid single to right-field, stole second base and scored after Kyle Shaheen poked his second base knock of the game.
Jacket pitchers also struggled.
Starter Jackson Sellers and reliever Brady Reynolds both showed guts in pitching out of jams, but Sellers walked four Indians, hit a batter, surrendered a home-run, and gave up three unearned runs. Reynolds walked two and plunked one, but only allowed just two singles and struck out four in two 2/3 innings.
Towns County parlayed four walks, a hit batter, a throwing error, a fielder’s choice, a solid single and a barely-inside-the-foul line home-run into two runs in the first inning and two more in the second.
Prior to the fifth inning, Hayesville’s offensive production consisted of two stolen bases by Tate Roberts, Kendall Boyer legging out an infield single, a solid single by Shaheen, who then stole second, and two steals by Dawson Devane after he walked and was hit by a pitch.
The Yellow Jackets, 0-2, begin a three-game home-stand by hosting Union County on Friday, Andrews on Tuesday and Towns County on Wednesday.
Pisgah 10, Hayesville 0
The Yellow Jackets also struggled to reach home plate in the season-opener at Pisgah last Thursday.
“We had first-game jitters,” Coach Joe Jack Sellers said. “The score didn’t reflect how the game went. We had one bad inning.”
That inning was the third, when Pisgah plated six runs.
Hayesville managed four hits and drew five walks, but no one stepped on the dish.
The hitters were Mauney, Boyer, Roberts and Ben Bethel. Boyer also had a steal.
Shaheen reached base three times, being plunked once and walking twice. Chance Hughes also pilfered a base.
Defensively, Devane, Mauney and Sellers turned a double play.
Pitchers Boyer and Cade Caruso gave up six hits to a squad Sellers called “a good quality team,” but the duo walked eight and two of the hits went for extra bases.
“Our pitching and defense showed signs of rust, but we had some good moments,” Sellers said. “We didn’t get any clutch hits and we left a lot of base runners out there.”