As the umpire turns…Cyclones drop Region 1-AA title game
Published 8:48 am Friday, May 17, 2019
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Karson Dillard dives back to first safely on a pick off attempt.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton starting pitcher Matthew Dailey keeps a watchful eye on a Greeneville runner.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cyclone starter Matthew Daily prepares to deliver a pitch.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton’s Evan Carter and Bryson Rollins share a laugh after Carter touches home plate after a solo home run.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cyclone shortstop Bryson Rollins takes a throw and readies to make the tag for an out.
In mathematics, an equation may have one or several variables that will lead to a successful answer and if just one of those variables is off the whole equation will crash.
The same can be said about baseball as on Wednesday night in the Region 1-AA baseball championship, the Elizabethton Cyclones found a couple of difficult variables ended up in putting the Cyclones on the wrong end of an 8-6 loss to the Greeneville Greene Devils.
One of those occurred in the top of the third inning with the game tied at 1-1 when the Cyclones had an opportunity to get out of the inning with two outs and a tie game before the Greene Devils rallied to plate five runs on a couple of defensive breakdowns by Elizabethton.
“We have to fix it,” said Cyclone head coach Ryan Presnell about the uncharacteristic play. “We talked about it early on when you want to play big boy baseball like this you have got not to allow big crooked innings. If we don’t do that tonight, then we are the club on top.
“The good thing is we have tomorrow to practice and work on some things. I think that you guys have seen us improve over the last week and a half. We are doing some things that we weren’t doing five or six days ago.
“I look forward to getting on the road Friday and I look forward to practicing tomorrow,” continued Presnell. “I just look forward to being with this little ball team because they have a lot of fight despite all the adversity they have faced this year.”
The most significant variable in the game was the inconsistency of the umpires to make timely decisions that led to the game getting a little frisky with both sides chirping loudly.
One instance came in the bottom of the fifth with the Cyclones making big strides to pull even with Greeneville.
Elizabethton had plated two runs to make it a 7-4 ballgame and had Matthew Dailey on third after lacing a single and taking second on a throw to the plate where Bryson Rollins scored easily.
Dailey went to third on a previous wild pitch and Lawson Wagner worked a walk to put runners on the corners for ‘Betsy.
Jacob Mullins was up to bat with a 1-2 count when Mullins swung at the next pitch and it appeared that the catcher had gotten his glove in the way on the swing as the ball rolled toward the backstop.
Dailey crossed the plate and an infield umpire was squaring the runners up as the next batter stepped to the plate.
The Greeneville coach came bounding out of the dugout for at least the second time in the game to challenge the call as the game looked as it was getting ready to resume.
After a discussion that ended between all three umpires and the Greene Devils coach and then a conference with Presnell, the ruling came from the field umpire that Mullins was out for batter interference on the backswing according to one of the umpires after the contest that ended a big-time threat by the Cyclones.
“It was just a very confusing time for everybody,” said Presnell. “We had folks running around everywhere. It took us a while to get to the bottom of the call and once they got to the bottom of it, they got to the bottom of it.”
The game intensity turned up a notch or two after the call on both sides as Elizabethton scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull within one at 7-6.
The Greene Devils worked out of the mess when Rollins who had stung the ball the entire game lined into an inning-ending double play that caught Jaden Anderson going toward third and unable to retreat back to second on the relay.
Greeneville got a valuable run back in the top of the seventh when once again there was more controversy as a Greene Devil batter received not one redo, not two redo’s, but three redo’s thanks to the umpiring crew with the third being a fielder’s choice that drove home a teammate to make the score 8-6.
The Cyclones had nothing to offer in the bottom of the seventh as Greeneville celebrated the championship.
Anderson, Rollins, Dailey, and Ashton Wilson ended the game with two hits apiece for Elizabethton in their 11-hit attack.
Evan Carter launched a solo home run 360 feet over the right-field fence for the Cyclones as Karson Dillard, and Jacob Mullins also added one hit apiece.
Mullins made a major-league diving catch defensively in right field which could very well be an ESPN Top 10 candidate.
The Cyclones made four uncharacteristic errors in the field which led to scoring opportunities for the defending state champion Greene Devils who played mistake-free.
“It’s just that time of year,” added Presnell. “We have been talking about it for two weeks now. Two good baseball clubs trading cut blows man. I am just proud of our guys for going out there and playing defense when guys are hitting the baseball like that.
“I am proud of my pitcher going on the mound and they are hitting him and he doesn’t care. He is going to keep on throwing strikes and keep on doing what he does.
“I am just proud of them,” Presnell continued. “We talked before the game that win, lose, or draw I need you guys to be who we are and we are not going to let anything take off our game.
“I took those guys in the dugout at the end of the first inning and told those guys they were being tested and I said to them that they felt under attack and nothing was going right.
“We have to continue being who we are and at the end of the day who we are has to be good enough because we can’t be anything else and we are not going to be anything else because we are Cyclones and that is who we are.”
With the loss, the Cyclones travel to Alcoa to take on the Tornadoes, an 8-2 winner over Pigeon Forge also played Wednesday.
