Hiwassee Dam – It was a call one team will swear was right, while the other will swear was wrong.
Murphy led Hiwassee Dam 5-3, but the Eagles started one last rally with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Trenten Beavers reached on an infield single, then Clay Davis worked a four-pitch walk.
With runners on first and second, Trenton Berrong hit a ground ball up the middle. The ball was fielded by Bulldogs shortstop Mason Cook, who dashed to his left to second base to try to beat a sliding Davis to the bag.
The field umpire ruled Davis was out on the bang-bang play, while Davis stood crouching at the bag in disbelief. Cook and the rest of his Murphy teammates quickly jogged off the field, while Eagles head coach Tommy Strickland tried to appeal the play. The home plate umpire upheld his companion’s ruling, certifying the end of the game.
“From where I was, he got there,” Murphy head coach Tyler Edwards said.
Strickland, no surprise, saw it differently.
“The runner beat the ball,” he said. “To me, it was just that simple.”
The win kept Murphy (9-5 overall, 8-0 Smoky Mountain Conference) in the conference title hunt and stopped Hiwassee Dam (4-9, 3-5) from beating its county rival for the first time since 2015. The Bulldogs struck early, but didn’t break it open like they did in a 9-4 win over the Eagles three days earlier.
An RBI single by Cook in the top of the second scored Alex Roldan, then Murphy added two in the third on a bases-loaded walk by John Ledford and a sacrifice fly by Ty Laney. All three Eagles runs in the game came with two outs and the top of the lineup at the plate, starting with two in the bottom of the third.
Evan Hedrick would reach on an infield single, then moved to second when Beavers reached on an error. Hedrick would score on a Davis RBI single. Berrong followed with a ground ball to second that was
dropped, allowing Ethan Russell, who was pinch running for Beavers, to score and cut Murphy’s lead to 3-2.
An infield single by Dozer Mashburn started the top of the fourth, and he later scored on a groundout by Robert Turner. Hiwassee Dam answered in the bottom of the fifth, with Davis slicing a ground ball down the first base line that hopped up and around the bag for an RBI triple. With the Eagles struggling in a 16-5 loss the day before against Polk County, Tenn., Strickland thought this was the most together his team had played all season.
“They responded positively to it instead of negatively,” Strickland said. “We took a beating against Polk County, and came back and really did a much better job.”
Murphy would add a big insurance run in the top of the sixth. Turner fought off a curveball for a single up the middle, then stole second. Hedrick tried to pick him off at second, but the throw got away and past the centerfielder, allowing Turner to score easily.
Hiwassee Dam played Copper Basin, Tenn., on Monday and Robbinsville (6-10, 3-5) after the Cherokee Scout’s press time Tuesday and has two games next week against Cherokee. The Eagles are still in the hunt for a second straight playoff berth, but they’ll likely have to play better than .500 the rest of the way to do it.
Murphy traveled to Hayesville on Tuesday and host the Yellow Jackets (8-2, 8-0) on Friday for the de facto conference championship. Both teams entered the week undefeated in conference play, though Hayesville has been more impressive, beating conference teams by an average of 13.9 runs per game compared to Murphy’s 8.1.
Edwards knows his team’s recent struggles at the plate will have to be worked out by then. He also knows it doesn’t matter how his team gets a win as long as they do.
“Just going in there and just competing in every single pitch,” Edwards said. “And winning by any means necessary.”