MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Meigs County drew first blood, scoring a run in the first inning for what would be a short-lived lead.
That's all the Tigers got in the TSSAA Class A baseball opener, and they fell to Loretto's top-ranked Mustangs 11-1 in six innings Tuesday.
"From a defensive and pitching standpoint, you have to be able to mix it up and hit the corners," Meigs coach Tyler Roberts said. "I'm not going to blame an 11-1 loss on the umpire, but he had a small zone. We had to put it over the middle of the plate to get any calls, and they're sitting there dead-red."
The Tigers were held to three hits and Roberts took that into account.
"We had the same opportunity they did and we didn't execute," he said. "They definitely hit it better than we did."
The pitcher limiting Meigs' offensive opportunities was 6-foot-7 left-hander Jacob Laws, who struck out nine in five innings of work. He was pulled for the sixth, possibly with the idea of him throwing in relief in a couple of days.
"He's the best we've seen all year - by far," said Roberts, whose team dropped to 23-11. "Being that tall and with a high release point, the ball's on you before you realize it."
Laws was also active at the plate, poking a two-run homer along with Ryan Weathers.
The three Meigs hits came from Logan Fowler, Walker Malone and Bryce Burke. Malone scored the lone run on a a Burke single.
"We'll have a different team out there tomorrow morning. We still have a shot," Roberts said. "We just have to come out ready to go. We've got our senior, Walker Malone, going, so we'll see what happens. I'd surely love to play again tomorrow afternoon."
Malone pitched a no-hitter in the Tigers' sectional win last week.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.