Smoky Bears deal West first loss of season

The Smoky Bears evened their worksheet at 3-3 in their first conference game of the season. West is now 2-1 in the league.

West gets a shot at redemption today as the same two teams battle at Sevierville.

Orr was pretty much in control from start to finish as he needed just 82 pitches to toss the seven-inning complete game. He walked only one and struck out five.

The Trojans had more than one baserunner in just one inning with that coming in the third when they got their run.

Sevier managed only six hits in the victory but did a good job of getting runners around when they had a chance.

Bears’ coach Casey Taylor said, “This was a great way to start our conference season. It was a big win over a really good team, one I think is going to be around at the end of the conference race.

“For us to come over here and get a win against a team that good was huge. I know they have a big senior class and they have some good players.”

Taylor said, “I thought Orr threw the baseball really well. He had good control and didn’t have to throw a whole lot of pitches. Offensively, we got some timely hits.

“We’re not a great hitting team to be honest, not a big physical offensive type of team and we’ll play a lot of situational baseball. But today the guys we think we can really rely on came through for us. I thought Noah Webb broke the game there in the sixth.”

West coach Justin Pickett also said Orr pitched really well. “I thought he did a great job for them. He kept us off balance by pitching away and then throwing the curve ball in. We just couldn’t get anything rolling on offense.

“We played all right but we didn’t hit the ball well,” he added. “We had too many pop flies and we didn’t put any pressure on them early and we had to play from behind.”

Pickett said, “I thought Jared threw the ball pretty well and kept us in the game. We just didn’t really have any offense behind him. That’s tough, you have to score to win games and we did a good job of that last week.”

Coffey left with two out in the sixth. He allowed five hits and all the runs with the final four of those unearned. He had some control problems with five walks and hit a batter while striking out seven. Camden Lovin pitched the final 1.3 innings.

Nobody in the game had more than one hit. Webb’s bases-loaded double was the big blow for the Smoky Bears and Gage Newsom added a triple. Orr had a single to knock in the first two runs.

For the Trojans, Nate Watson had a triple while Cooper Eldridge, Blaine Robinson and Mason McDaniel all had singles.

Coffey struck out four of the first seven men he faced but ran into trouble with one out in the top of the third. Gavin Joslin singled to right Ben Willcoxon followed with another hit.

After a flyout to right, Webb drew a walk to load the sacks and Orr delivered a two-run hit up the middle.

Eldridge singled for the Trojans in the bottom of the frame. He went to second on a balk and stole third before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Nate Britt. Watson followed with his triple but Orr got the next man to fly out to center to end the inning.

The Bears added a run in the fifth when Willcoxon was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Newsom’s triple.

Sevier County took control in the sixth when two walks, a sac fly, an error and doubles by Ryan Finnigan and Webb scored the final four runs.