Robbinsville – Through his first three starts of the season, Graylen Orr has left hitters mystified — more often than not, returning to the dugout in short order.
The Black Knights senior has allowed just nine hits and turned in splits of 10/13/11 in the strikeout category, including the Knights’ most recent successes.
Robbinsville’s offense has ensured Orr’s efforts have not gone to waste, manufacturing 13 runs on nine hits and a pair of doubles while defeating the Copper Basin (Tenn.) Cougars in a run-shortened, 13-3 triumph at Loudon Orr Memorial Field.
Tuesday, Orr held firm through another six innings at Cherokee, with the Black Knights collecting their first conference win of the season in a 9-6 victory.
Copper Basin struggled to even make contact during Orr’s first dip into the opponent’s waters, with seven of the Cougars’ first outs coming via strikeout. On four of those occasions, Orr froze the batter for a called third strike.
A no-hitter was broken up thanks to a leadoff hit for Avery Crowder in the top of the fourth, which is the only portion of the game that Copper Basin managed to inflict any damage. Crowder scored during the next at-bat on an error, while opposing starter Landon Allen sprinted home on a shaky wild pitch four batters later. Tucker Rhodes then grounded out to net the Cougars’ only RBI of the afternoon, driving in Zeb West.
Orr struck out the side in both the first and fourth; following his troublesome frame, he settled in to fan at least two batters each in both the fifth and sixth.
Production at the plate otherwise belonged to the Black Knights. Robbinsville (3-2, 1-1) spiked six runs onto Copper Basin in the bottom of the second, with Quinn Jumper opening the proverbial floodgates by dashing home on a one-out fielding error.
Bryc Garrison later drew a bases-loaded walk to bring courtesy runner Tyler Martinez trotting home, before back-to-back 2-run hits were roped off the bats of Ethan Orr (a single) and Tytan Teesateskie (a double). The latter emerged with a team-best four RBIs and drove in Robbinsville’s succeeding runs in the bottom of the fourth, a 2-run single that scored Graylen Orr and Garrison.
The Knights stretched out the inevitable until the sixth, when Ethan Orr cemented the impromptu ending on a flyout that scored Chase Calhoun.
Orr for an Orr
Cherokee – With Graylen handling back-to-back starts, Ethan Orr made his presence known against the Braves on Tuesday.
Ethan stole a base, tripled and homered to finish with a team-high four RBIs in Robbinsville’s 9-6 conquering of Cherokee (1-5, 0-3).
To bring things full circle, his second-inning dinger was a 2-run smash that also scored – you guessed it – Graylen.
The Knights pulled ahead in the second and never looked back, scoring four to rally from a 2-1 deficit to pull ahead 5-2. Robbinsville never fell behind again.
On the basepath, Robbinsville kept Cherokee’s sophomore catcher Talan Crowe on his toes. Graylen and Garrison each swiped three bases, with Ethan and Jumper getting in on the fun with a stolen base apiece.