Disappointed Hurricanes back home

May 21, 2015 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated May 21, 2015 at 1:27 a.m.

by Ward Gossett

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A heart-breaking opening loss Tuesday coupled with a four-run first-inning deficit Wednesday wasn't the combination East Hamilton had hoped for.

The Hurricanes, a 2-0 loser to nationally ranked Farragut in Tuesday's Class AAA baseball portion of the Spring Fling, had hoped to bounce back Wednesday morning. However, Ravenwood, one of the "home teams" here, had other ideas and bounced East Hamilton from the tournament, 12-2 in six innings.

"It's really disappointing," said Hurricanes coach Steve Garland, who brought another team (Soddy-Daisy) to state 11 years ago. "We were just tickled to get there. This time I fully expected and planned on to hang around."

That isn't to say he thought his upstart team, which caught fire the last three weeks of the season, would win it all.

"I thought, though, that we could make a deeper run," Garland said. "That first game is so critically important. It left us with a mountain to climb -- four games to get to the championship. We didn't have the mindset to win today."

Later, the coach told his team he'll choose to think about better times than this week. The Hurricanes had four fun weeks getting to state.

"You get behind the eight-ball with a good team like Ravenwood, it makes for a tough test," Garland said.

Ravenwood put the pressure on with its four-run first inning, and East Hamilton didn't show the fight it had exhibited to get here. Led by Bryce Denton's three-hit, three-RBI performance, the winners scored 11 runs in the first three innings.

Micah Kaczor struck out six batters in a complete-game five-hitter, allowing two earned runs.

Nick Woods led East Hamilton with a home run in the second inning.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com

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