The strikeouts didn’t pile up for Zach Morris like they did in his previous start, but the Tigers defense had his back. Ringgold came up with stellar plays and timely hits to dispatch Sonoraville 5-0 in Region 6-AAA baseball action Wednesday.
The two teams matched up a day early at Ringgold because of the heavy rain in today’s forecast.
The game got off to a gruesome start as Garrett Yates twisted and turned to track a long fly ball off the bat of Thad Harris, the games first batter, and slammed into the center field wall after making the catch.
Yates was down for a number of minutes, and the meantime, Harris circled the bases, but the out call eventually came. Yates was never unconscious but was extremely disoriented and taken to the hospital.
“They want to keep him in the hospital longer for observation, but they said he’s starting to get his memory back,” Tigers coach Brent Tucker said.
The catch was one of several outstanding defensive plays in the game to back Morris’ solid start. The Ringgold starter looked uncomfortable early but settled in to pitch the complete game shutout.
His biggest challenge of the night came in the top of the third when Sonoraville loaded the bases with one out on a single, double and a walk. Morris got the Phoenix to hit into two straight gound-ball outs to end the threat.
“It started with Zach. It was a great performance — a gutsy performance,” said Tucker. “We had guys come up in big situations. We tell them ‘go be athletes,’ and they did that. I think we had a diving play at every outfield position and Cade [Gilbert] made some big plays at shortstop. Ethan Dalton has also done a heck of a job behind the plate all year.”
Harris was on the mound for the Phoenix and had a rough patch in the bottom half of the inning. He allowed a leadoff single before picking the runner off but then served up a double to Peyton Tennant, who replaced Yates, and a two-run homer to Ty Jones.
“It was a well-played game, and they made the plays on defense and got the hits when they needed them,” Sonoraville coach Deron Walraven said.
Harris also ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up three runs on two straight singles with two out. Walraven stuck with him the rest of the way, and Harris did not give up any runs outside of those two innings.
“That’s what good pitchers do,” Walraven said. “He battled back. He’s a competitor, and he didn’t want to come out of that game.”
Morris scattered six hits and struck out four, and he was 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs to lead the Tigers into sole possession of second place in the Region.