Pioneers rock Rockets
Offense comes alive

in 14-4 league victory
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

At last, Watauga’s hitting caught up with its pitching — with a vengeance.

The Pioneers cranked out 12 hits, nine of them going for extra bases, and bounced A.C. Reynolds 14-4 in five innings. Watauga (12-7, 5-5 NWC) kept its hopes for third place in the conference alive by overwhelming two A.C. Reynolds pitchers.

“We worked hard in practice the last two days,” Pioneers coach Pete Hardee said. “We’ve got a lot of hitters with blisters on their hands. We’ve taken a lot of extra cuts and made some adjustments in practice to eliminate pop-ups.”

The Rockets (12-6, 5-5) sent staff ace Jeremy Sluder to the mound. Sluder picked up the win over Watauga in Asheville earlier in the season, but didn’t get out of the first inning in the rematch. Watauga scored eight runs in the first inning, three in the second and two more in the third to take an 11-3 lead.

By the time they were finished, the Pioneers got two-run home runs each from Trey Dunnigan and Trey Lowder and a solo blast from Adam Church, which gave the Pioneers the necessary run to end the game with the 10-run mercy rule.
Lowder devastated Sluder and relief pitcher Ryan Jones with a two-run double in the first, an RBI double in the second and his two-run homer in the third.

“We knew we were going to get going today,” Lowder said. “There was a lot of time for us to get going.”
Dunnigan wasn’t far behind, hitting an RBI single in the first, a two-run home run in the second and a double in the third.

Church, catching for the first time since a thumb injury against East Burke knocked him out of the defensive lineup three weeks ago, added a two-run double and a home run. He also had a single.

“We turned it around and started swinging the bat,” Church said. “All week in practice, we worked on line drives.”

Making sure all of it stood up was Watauga starter Jon Sharpe, who gave up three runs in the first, but settled down in the second inning and proceeded to retire 12 straight Rockets before allowing a two-out walk. A.C. Reynolds got an RBI double from Connor Cox and a two-run home run from Jake Hill in the first inning. The Rockets also got an RBI double from Phillip Treadway in the fifth.

The Pioneers’ usually solid defense once again came through by making just one error, which was in the first inning. Martin added a diving catch in center field that robbed Thomas Sexton of extra bases in the fourth.
Sharpe struck out three and walked two. He scattered four hits.

“I really didn’t feel on my game tonight, but luckily, the hitters bailed me out,” Sharpe said. “Baine had a nice play behind me, they definitely did great behind me.”

Watauga greeted Sluder with an Ethan Moyer walk, a Cal Hardee double and a two-run double by Church. Martin was hit by a pitch and scored with courtesy runner Jake Wallace on a two-run double by Lowder. He scored on an RBI single by Dunnigan, giving the Pioneers a 5-0 lead with no outs.

It was enough to force Rockets coach Brian Craig to switch to Jones, who allowed an infield single to Tyler Moore, a run-scoring fielder’s choice to Phil Gordon and a two-run double to Moyer, who was making his second appearance at the plate in the inning.

Hardee added a sacrifice fly to give the Pioneers an 8-3 lead. Watauga sent 12 batters to the plate, but they were just getting warmed up.

Lowder’s double and Dunnigan’s home run in the second inning gave the Pioneers an 11-3 lead. Lowder’s home run in the third inning pushed that lead to 13-3. Church’s home run ended the game at 14-4.

Watauga 14, A.C. Reynolds 4
A.C. Reynolds 300 01 — 4 4 3
Watauga 832 01 — 14 12 1
Sluder, Jones (1) and Anderson. Sharpe and Church. W—Sharpe (5-1), L—Sluder (2-2). LOB—A.C. Reynolds 2, Watauga 3. 2B—A.C. Reynolds, Treadway, Cox; Watauga, Moyer, Hardee, Church, Lowder 2, Dunnigan. HR—A.C. Reynolds, Hill; Watauga, Church, Lowder, Dunnigan. HBP—Watauga, Martin (by Sluder). SF—Watauga, Hardee. SB—Watauga, Moyer, Shelton.