Fifth-inning mistakes doom Bearden on Throwback Day
A rough fifth inning spelled defeat for the Bearden High School baseball team late last week.
The Bulldogs had a lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, only to see things unravel in a 6-4 loss to Gibbs Thursday, April 25, on Throwback Day at Farragut High School's John Heatherly Field/The Ballpark at Farragut.
Scoring three runs in the top of the fifth, Bearden took a 4-2 lead and had the Eagles (11-17) starring at a 12th consecutive loss.
Jacob Balsley had a two run double and John Beam knocked in another run with a two-bagger for the Bulldogs (15-11-1).
But Gibbs took advantage of an error and a pair of walks, recording just two hits, to score four in the bottom of the fifth.
Bearden’s Josh Stubblefield started the game on the mound, but left in the fifth. Drew Sliwinski, a sophomore who shined in a complete-game victory against Lenoir City recently, entered and struggled. He didn’t make it out of the inning. Jaxson Serritt came in to get the final out of the frame.
“We had that one bad inning and Drew was laboring, He really struggled,” BHS head coach John Rice said. “I thought Josh really threw well and thought Jaxson made some really good pitches.
“Our defense fell apart.”
Bearden saw a golden scoring chance go by the boards in the sixth. Bryson Trammell doubled to start the inning. He advanced to third on a bunt single by Rector. But Gibbs reliever Mikey Lowe induced a pair of flyouts and struck out Patrick Boles to end the inning.
Gibbs scored two in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI double by Tanner Goins. Ethan Hopkins also drove in a run with a groundout to make the score 2-0.
The Bulldogs answered and trimmed their deficit in half in the top of the second.
Harrison Mosely singled to lead off the inning. He came home two outs later on a double by Caden Rector.
While the loss was tough to take for the Bulldogs, but Gibbs head coach Geff Davis is hoping the victory will help propel the Eagles into a deep postseason run.
“This was a big win for us, but every win is a big win when you’ve lost 11 in a row,” Davis said. “It’s not like we’ve been awful. We played some good teams that are on top of their respective divisions.
“Our defense has been really good," he added. "We just haven’t been able to hit the ball. Our offense has been sporadic at best.”
The Bulldogs returned to the diamond Friday night, April 26, and routed Central 10-0 at BHS's Phil Garner Ballpark.
