If he had looked over in Sequatchie County’s dugout, Meigs County baseball coach Dave Mason might have found the reason his Tigers’ season-opening win streak ended at three.
It may have been the stick, a refurbished broom handle that travels everywhere the Indians go and was in the dugout as Sequatchie County won 5-3 over the Tigers.
Playing in the Wildcat Classic at Central, Sequatchie kept its own unbeaten streak intact behind the six-hit pitching of Tyler Kilgore, who never really labored until the final Meigs turn at the plate. He surrendered two of the six hits he allowed in the seventh inning but then snuffed the rally with an infield pop-up and a weak grounder to second base.
“He’s a senior that knows how to pitch. He’s a quiet kid, but he’s hard-nosed and he gets it done,” new Sequatchie coach Aaron Simmons observed.
Kilgore had a no-hitter through three but lost it and his shutout in the fourth on back-to-back singles by Dillon McKinney and Spencer Crabtree. Crabtree added a long home run to right-center in the sixth.
The stick, now painted the Indians’ colors of purple and gold, is team property now, but its custodian is Shawn Cooley, the team’s No. 2 hitter.
“We found it during a work day when we were cleaning up,” Simmons said. “Shawn was using it like a sword. He’d been struggling a little at the plate, and I told him he ought to keep it.”
It worked again Friday afternoon as Cooley stroked a deep fly to center and reached base in his other three at-bats. In the fifth inning he tripled in Brett Bartley, the fleet-footed catcher who bats leadoff, and scored on Kyle Harmon’s single to left. Cooley’s last at-bat provided a single to right-center, and he and Harmon wound up with four of their team’s six hits.
SEQUATCHIE COUNTY 5, MEIGS COUNTY 3Meigs County 000 101 1 — 3 6 2Sequatchie 101 030 x — 5 6 2WP: Tyler Kilgore (1-0), 5 Ks. LP: Jamie Eden (0-1). HR: Spencer Crabtree (MC). 3B: Shawn Cooley (SC). 2B: Jake Rowland (MC). Highlights: Crabtree 2-4, run, 2 RBIs (MC); Cooley 2-1, 2 runs, RBI; Kyle Harmon 2-4, SB, RBI (SC). Records: Sequatchie 2-0-1; Meigs 3-1.
Bartley scored the Indians’ initial run in the first on a sacrifice fly by Tim Condra. Tyler Kilgore added a run-scoring single in the fifth, when Sequatchie went up 5-2.
Meigs County plays at Central again this morning, squaring off against the host Pounders at 11. The Tigers move to Hixson to play the Wildcats at 4 p.m. Sequatchie County plays back-to-back games at Central, versus Arts & Sciences at 1:30 and the Pounders at 4.
The tournament semifinals are scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday at Hixson and Central. The championship game is scheduled to start at 4:30 at Hixson.