Murphy – After a rushed start to the season, Murphy baseball looks like it’s starting to find its footing. After beating Franklin 8-7 on March 10 thanks to some late heroics, the Bulldogs then bested Robbinsville 7-2 its Smoky Mountain Conference opener on March 13.
“I thought the kids as a team played really good today,” head coach Tyler Edwards said. “We hit the ball up and down the lineup we played solid enough defense. We’d like to play a little better defense going forward, but it was a good team win.”
Edwards thought the win over the Panthers (3-1 overall) gave his team a big confidence boost, as he thought his team played the complete game it needed to get a win.
Murphy (2-2 overall, 1-0 conference) was aggressive at the plate early, then watched Franklin take a 7-5 lead into the top of the seventh before the Bulldogs rallied to get the win on a two-run walkoff double by Mason Cook.
Three days later against the Black Knights (0-3, 0-1), Murphy was in control throughout. Cole Laney opened with a 1-2-3 first inning, then Murphy added two in the bottom of the inning. Robert Turner singled with one out and then a double by Isaac Cole moved him to third. Both would come around to score when a John Ledford ground ball to second bounced off the second baseman’s leg and into shallow right field.
An impressive flip by Ty Laney to Mason Cook helped the Bulldogs get out of a runners on first-and-third jam in the top of the second, and Murphy pushed its lead up to 3-0 in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Zach Skogen. Graylen Orr would get the Black Knights on the board on a dropped popup that would’ve ended the top of the inning, but Robbinsville would get just two more hits the rest of the way.
After pitching the first three innings, Cole Laney gave way to Turner, who Robbinsville struggled to solve. Turner gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out six in three innings. Sophomore Alex Roldan made his varsity pitching debut in the seventh inning to finish out the win.
“Just the more reps they get, the better they’re going to get,” Edwards said of Turner and Roldan. “They’re two good young kids and they work really hard in practice every day. They’re baseball players on top of being athletes too.”
Cole Laney’s RBI single put Murphy up 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth, then he came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning. The Bulldogs would add two more runs in the fifth on an RBI double by Isaiah Temple and RBI single by Ty Laney. Robbinsville would add one more run in the top of the sixth when Lathan Buchanan scored on a Quinn Jumper groundout.
Murphy dropped both games in a doubleheader to 4A school Watauga (8-1) on Thursday, and looked
to bounce back in a home game against Cherokee (2-5, 1-1) on Tuesday. As the Bulldogs have gotten more time together, Edwards said the team has gotten used to each other in all aspects of the game.
Players are getting to know each other’s tendencies in the field, swings are coming around, and pitchers are throwing with better command. It’s just part of the process Murphy would go through this year with a lot of players settling into new roles.
“Just as a whole, we’re starting to find our groove,” Edwards said. “We’re not quite where we want to be yet, but we will be soon, hopefully.”