Knights combine for 29 runs against Swain County, Cherokee
Robbinsville – In a miraculous transformation, the Knights came out of a 20-minute rain delay Tuesday to score eight runs.
Robbinsville (6-7, 6-7) trailed Cherokee 2-1 in the bottom of the second, when a weather delay halted the game. Cole Patterson had a 2-0 count and the Black Knights had two runners on when the delay hit, but when play resumed, Robbinsville’s bats quickly heated up.
Patterson triple. Kayden Brock doubled. Wachacha singled. Soon enough, Ethan Orr doubled, while both Greylon Orr and Ethan Beavers drove in runs with hits. Before the Braves (1-12, 1-12) could gather their bearings, the Knights scored eight runs and went on to win in five innings, 14-4.
“I’m really happy with the way we cleaned it up from Friday; we lost that game and I feel like we shouldn’t have,” said Robbinsville head coach Brent Icenhower. “We only had two errors and one strikeout today. I’ve been preaching to them all season: less than four strikeouts, we’ve got a shot.”
The game was called when Beavers drove in Hunter Jones on a single in the fifth.
Robbinsville now will cross its fingers ahead of the final game of the regular season, a road affair at Hayesville today at 4:30 p.m. The Jackets (13-0, 13-0) have already clinched the Smoky Mountain Conference title, while the Black Knights are hoping to finish the season at .500 and potentially get a playoff berth.
“My No. 1 (Shuler) is going to be throwing on the mound that day and as long as we can put the ball in play – and not give them any free passes – we’ve got a shot,” Icenhower said.
Hot hitting
Robbinsville – A pair of consecutive, 7-run innings did the trick.
Though suspended from May 28 to June 3 – due to rain – the Black Knights finally put a damper on their second meeting with Swain County (4-7, 4-7) by picking up a 5-inning, 15-4 win over the Maroon Devils.
The floodgates opened in the second. With the bases loaded, Patterson unleashed a 2-run double, before Greylon Orr netted an RBI on a groundout that scored Patterson. A pair of back-to-back, two-out hits by Brock and Phillips would later drive in both Jones and Ethan Orr.
Robbinsville would begin the home half of the third inning with four straight singles by Shuler, Patterson, Greylon Orr and Jones – the latter driving in Shuler.
Once things resumed June 3, the Knights picked right back up where they left off. Jones scored on an errant pickoff throw, before Brock launched a 3-run homer that ran the tally to 15-3.
Out-dueled
Robbinsville – The Knights could not replicate the magic of their 16-0, no-hit bid at Andrews (6-6, 6-6) on May 11, as Robbinsville fell in an 11-6 loss Friday.
Marred by errors, Robbinsville simply ran out of ammo in the late innings, as both offenses traded the lead for much of the first half.
Isaac Weaver scored on an error for Andrews in the top of the first, but Brock singled home Shuler in the bottom of the frame to knot things at 1-1. Tanner Huskins would then garner a hit that scored Hunter McGaha in the top of the second, but a Wachacha solo homer in the home half deadlocked the game again, 2-2.
The Wildcats sent three runners across the plate on two different Robbinsville errors in the third, before piling on four more in the fourth. Brock would triple to bring in Greylon Orr in the bottom of the fifth, while an Ethan Orr hit gave Brock the chance to trot home. Weaver again slid into home on an error in the sixth, but Robbinsville continued to chip away at the deficit with Shuler sprinting home on a dropped third strike and Orr picking up his second RBI on a single that scored Patterson.
Andrews would get the last say, as Ethan Neal led off the seventh with a home run.