Pigeon Forge, Tenn. – The Marion County Warriors baseball season has come to an end as they traveled to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to take on the Tigers from Pigeon Forge High School for their state qualifying matchup. The Warriors fell short 10-0 in a game that saw the Warriors struggle to put points on the board. The Warriors finish their season with a 24-12 record, a district championship and as runners up in the region.
The Warriors sat one game away from the state tournament as they traveled to Pigeon Forge to take on the Tigers. Tyler Minton started on the mound for the Warriors where he struck out four batters while giving up four hits. Alec Barton and Brody Weeks would be the only Warriors to record hits with Barton going 1-3 and Weeks going 1-2.
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Marion County would give up a run in the bottom of the first, but would play sound defense including a strikeout from Minton to bring the inning to a close keeping the damage at 1-0
Tyler Minton took the mound for the majority of the game. Earlier this year he signed his letter of intent to play baseball at Transylvania University next year.
The Warriors knew they’d have a tough task at hand with University of Tennessee commit and Mr. Baseball finalist Dylan Loy on the mound for the Tigers, but the Warriors would put runners in scoring position in the top of the second as Brody Schaefer would be walked on to first base. Max Minter would come in to run for Schaefer, and would advance to second after a single from Weeks.
The Warriors would put runners on the corners as Minter would make his way to third base, but the Tigers would force two quick outs to keep the Warriors from putting points on the board.
This would be the Warriors only real scoring opportunity as Marion County would only put a runner on base two more times, Barton’s single in the top of the third and a walk in the top of the fifth.
Warriors coach Scott Barton said after the game that their opportunity in the second could’ve been the Warriors main chance at changing the outcome of this one, “I think there in the second inning, if we could’ve gotten one of those runs across, I think that kind of would’ve changed the complexion of the game a little, put a little more pressure on them. It would’ve tied it up and made it 1-1, and I think we could’ve kind of kept rallying a little bit, but that’s a good team, hats off to them, that’s a really good team,” he said.
Will Pryor looking for a hit in one of his at-bats. Pryor will continue his baseball career as a member of the Belmont Bruins next year
Unfortunately for the Warriors, they would come on the wrong side of a massive fifth inning from the Tigers that saw six runs go on the board to extend their lead to 10-0 and bring the Warriors season to an end.
After the game Coach Bartoon spoke to how proud he is of the season that the Warriors had despite missing out on a trip to Murfreesboro, “it’s a great group of young men,” Barton said, “you couldn’t ask for a better group of guys that come in early and you almost have to force them out, they come in and get their swings in and get more swings in and just spend more time in there.”
“They’re just a tight group. They’ve done something at Marion County that hasn’t been done in quite some time, so they can take pride in knowing that they’ve accomplished a district championship and a region runner up,” Barton said, “at the end of the day, I’d still take this team over that one. These guys are great young men.”