Big Games At Scotty Bunton Field!

Hampton Bulldog Baseball went 4-0 the week of April 19 through the 23rd.  The Baseball Bulldogs outscored their Carter County Rivals Unaka and Happy Valley a combined 39-2 Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, before a 5-0 win at the Washburn Pirates on Friday.  It was a fun, rewarding week.  We do need to tip our caps to Washburn.  They came ready to play on their Senior Night, playing errorless baseball at their very unique ballpark.  A couple of neat highlights for the visiting ball club was its turning a pair of double plays.  The first was a 5-4-3 double play (5-Lyons-4-Royston-3-Kuhn).  The second was a 4-6-3 (4-Royston-6-Whitson-3-Kuhn).  

Monday, April 26th and Tuesday, April 27th are huge!  Simply put, if we would sweep University High, Hampton would be the #2 seed heading into the District 1A Tournament at David Crockett High School.  If the Baseball Bulldogs split with UH, they would be the #3 seed.  Hampton is third in the conference now, but if the Bulldogs lost both games to UH, we would finish with the same conference record as Sullivan North.  Going to the tiebreaker, Sullivan North outscored Hampton by one run head to head, so they would be the third seed.  That means the Bulldogs, as the #4 seed, would play the #5 seed Unaka Rangers in an elimination game on Friday, May 7th.  That's a lot of information I know, but in the short term, Bulldog Baseball has a tall task ahead of us, as University High is one of the best hitting teams in Northeast, Tennessee.  The boys from Scotty Bunton Field must play well.     

Notes-

*Parker Henry has his season batting average over .300 and his on base percentage over .400, to go along with his solid defense in centerfield.  

*Josh Owens, in one of the most amazing stat lines you will read, has 11 hits in 11 at-bats since being moved to the designated hitter position in the batting order!  Two of those eleven hits are doubles, one is his first career home run (at Washburn on Friday, April 23), and he has drawn three walks.  Owens season batting average is up to .426!

*The Hampton pitching staff now has a team ERA of 2.90.  It is not a dominant velocity/strikeout pitching staff, so it needs defense behind it, but the Bulldogs run quality arms out there day in and day out. 

*JV plays on Monday at 4:30 and Varsity first pitch will be at 7:00 at Scotty Bunton Field.