JOHNSON COUNTY LONGHORN BASEBALL NEWS ITEM

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Posted Apr 17/11 - Longhorn Baseball Recap

The Longhorns traveled to Sullivan East on Friday to play the Three Rivers Conference leading Patriots. We threw our ace, Mark Jennings, and #25 showed that when he is on the mound the Johnson County Longhorns can compete with, and beat, anyone. Jennings shut the Patriots out for 6 innings and only surrendered 5 runs (4 earned) over 7 2/3 innings pitched. Johnson County went up 2-0 in the top of the first on Sawyer Ward's 4th home run and 30 and 31st runs batted in of the season. Sullivan East scored an unearned run in the 6th to cut our lead to 2-1. That 2-1 lead did not hold up, as the pitcher for East, Boiling, hit a solo home run off the left field foul pole on the second pitch he saw in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game at 2 runs apiece. Johnson County went up 3-2 when Austin Humphrey singled to left field with 2 outs, scoring Sammy Hampton from second base. This lead did not hold up either, as East scored three in the bottom of the 8th, including a walk off 2-run shot from their centerfielder, Richardson. The frustrating part was that with the count being 2 balls and 2 strikes and the score tied at 3, Jennings threw what appeared to be strike three, but it was called a ball. The next pitch was hit over the centerfield fence for the 5-3 Sullivan East win. Now, we understand that umpires are humans and make mistakes as we all do, but it did not make the call any easier to take, especially after we were already frustrated with this particular umpire for some calls early in the game. We earned some more respect, but not the win. The Longhorns now stand at 4-5 in the Three Rivers Conference and stand at 10-5 overall. We will send #3, Sawyer Ward, to the mound as we host the Happy Valley Warriors on Monday.

The JV Longhorns beat Sullivan East on Friday night by the score of 3-2, in what turned out to be a great baseball game. Andy Woods, making his fourth start of the season, threw a 9 inning complete game. The likeable sophomore threw only 99 pitches, which is amazing when you consider that many high school pitchers often throw that many pitches in 5-7 innings of mound time. Woods surrendered only 5 hits, struck out 5, and walked only 2. Woods also helped his own cause, as he singled in the top of the 9th and later scored on a throwing error, what turned out to be the winning run. Sophomores Daniel Helm and Ryan Smith scored the other two runs for the JV Longhorns. The offensive struggles continued, but we did play 9 innings of errorless baseball, which is amazing for a Varsity club, much less a JV baseball club. Johnson County improved to 8-3 on the season with this win.

Saturday the JV Horns traveled to Unicoi County to play the Blue Devils, in a game that was originally scheduled to be here in Johnson County, but was relocated due to the poor field conditions here at home. Our JV team lost both games by the scores of 5-3 and 7-2. Jacob Henson did not have his best stuff in the first game, but we did not help him offensively, as we had the bases loaded on three seperate occasions and only scored two of those nine runners. Ryan Mahala also struggled in the second game, but our pitchers and defense have kept the JV Longhorns in games all season. Sometimes your offense has to back your pitching up and our offense was not able to do that on Saturday. The JV ball club has several players who are going to have very good offensive careers for Johnson County, but the 2011 JV season has been an offensive struggle when we have played competition that is similar to, or perceived to be better than us. We will continue to work to on the offensive side of the ball, as we do all aspects of the game of baseball. Bobby Taylor will be making his first career start for the JV Horns on Monday, as Andy Woods will only be on two full days rest and Henson and Mahala will only be on one full day of rest. It's a big opportunity for Taylor and we are confident the hard working junior will throw a solid game. Hope to see you at the ballpark.

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