We were deflated after losing a heartbreaker to the first place Sullivan East Patriots on Friday evening, but we are disgusted and embarrassed after losing 9-6 to the last place Happy Valley Warriors on Monday afternoon.  Sawyer Ward, making his second start of the year against a Three Rivers Conference opponent, kept us in the game, but we did not score enough runs for him, and it would be unfair of us to ask Ward to shut down an opposing team, being this is his first year as a regular pitcher.  Going into the 2011 season we were afraid we would not have a lot of pitching depth, but early season results gave us hope that would not be the case, but it appears that our depth on the mound is becoming a big issue.  I recently told our JV club, which has not been hitting the ball well until last night (see below), that sometimes your offense has to pick up your pitching staff or defense.  Our Varsity club has swung the bats pretty well all season, but they are not going to hit well every game.  Somtimes the staff has to pick the offense up, as Mark Jennings attempted to do on Friday at Sullivan East.  A successful baseball club receives a nice balance of hitting, pitching, and defense, and all of these are critical in conference play, as games become tighter and each pitch, at-bat, and play become magnified.  We knew going into the game against the Warriors yesterday that it would not be as easy as many may have thought.  It's hard to beat any decent team three times in one season, and although Happy Valley has appeared to be less than decent this season, all teams in the Three Rivers Conference are decent baseball clubs.  It was also tough, as was stated above, after that deflating loss to Sullivan East last Friday.  In saying all of that, we have to get mentally tough as a baseball program.  Good baseball teams come to play every day, regardless of the circumstances.  We are not there yet.  It's frustrating!  Sawyer Ward did give us a quality start and he also went 3-3 at the plate.  Sammy Hampton has been swinging a hot bat and he had two more hits on Monday.  Danny Herman also had a double for the Longhorns.  Chad Hodgkiss, making his first offensive Varsity start of the 2011 season had a big RBI double in the bottom of the 6th to put us up 5-4.  He also lined out hard to right field to end the game.  Harley Reece and Mark Jennings also had base hits for Johnson County.  Mark Jennings threw 101 pitches on Friday at East.  He was put in a tough spot yesterday, as we asked him to come in on two days rest and close the game down for us.  Jennings had not warmed up in the pen and did not expect to be called upon, so it was a tough situation for him.  Today is his scheduled start, and we expect #25 to give us a chance to win as he always does, today against the Unicoi County Blue Devils.  First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 PM.

The JV Longhorns busted out of a slump in a big way on Monday, as they pounded the Happy Valley Warriors by the score of 17-5.  One could say that Happy Valley had limited JV pitching on Monday, but the JV Longhorns have struggled against not so dominant pitching recently, so it was just good to plate some runs.  It is always nice to give hard working kids and opportunity and reward them for their hard work and dedication to Longhorn Baseball.  Bobby Taylor earned his first career start on Monday, and although it was an adventure at times, Taylor pitched well enough to earn his first career win.  Bobby labored over four innings, throwing 93 pitches, but he pitched out of some jams and struck out five in his time on the mound.  Tristan Robinson made his first career appearance, pitching a scoreless top of the 5th.  Ryan Smith, who has been swinging a hot bat since being inserted into the cleanup slot, went 3-4 for the JV Horns.  Smith scored twice and knocked in two.  First baseman, Daniel Helm, had a 2-run double for Johnson County and Taylor also hit a double.  Andy Stout, playing shortstop for an injured Judd Hammons, Robinson, Sam Thomas, and Taylor all had base knocks for the JV Longhorns.  The JV Longhorns are off until Saturday, when the Sullivan East Patriots come to Johnson County for JV action at 1:00.