Murphy – The Murphy baseball team knew it had a challenge on March 29 against Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. The Eagles entered the game ranked at the top of the N.C. Independent School Athletic Association Class 4A MaxPreps rankings. The private boarding school features kids from Georgia, New York and five different countries.
It was another non-conference game to help the Bulldogs see some competition that’s a few levels above what they’ll see in the Smoky Mountain Conference. Murphy has already played 3A school Franklin twice, as well as a doubleheader at Appalachian State against 4A Watauga.
Though Rabun Gap led from the top of the first, the Bulldogs hung tough until it got out of hand in the sixth inning, when the Eagles scored five runs to put the game into mercy-rule territory for a 14-2 loss.
“We want to see good competition as many opportunities as you can,” head coach Tyler Edwards said. “You’re hoping for a big playoff push, and when you get later in the playoffs you want your kids to see these quality of teams early in the year so they’re not shocked.”
Rabun Gap (9-1 overall) had hitters who took good at-bats up and down the lineup, and it showed from the beginning of the game. After Isaac Cole retired the first two batters, Armani Guzman walked. The next batter, Dylan Alonso, crushed the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence for a two-run homer, and Brady Roullier followed with a solo shot.
The Eagles would add two more in the second when an RBI single by Denajh Williams scored Zeb Coghill, and Williams would later score on a bases-loaded walk with Guzman at the plate. Rabun Gap put three more runs on the board in the fourth with a sacrifice fly by Lewis Rodriguez and then a two-run bomb by Guzman, which landed well over the right-field fence and into the left-field corner of the field to the right of Flip Watson Field at Konehete Veterans Park.
Murphy (4-5) would tack on two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to an error and a wild pitch, but had chances to make things a little closer. The Bulldogs had runners in scoring position in each inning, but only scored in one.
Sometimes they struggled with Rabun Gap’s pitching, striking out 11 times. Other times they just made some loud outs, like in the first when Guzman snagged a line drive by Cole out of mid-air and threw back to second to get the runner and complete the double play.
“We talked about in the outfield after the game how we kind of made this a tight game at certain times,” Edwards said. “That’s something we’ve got to work on. Take advantage of every opportunity we get with runners in scoring position.”
Rabun Gap tacked on six more runs in the top of the sixth, which started with a leadoff home run by Rodriguez. After playing a pretty clean game the first five innings, the Bulldogs got a little sloppy in the field with two errors. That didn’t help against a lineup where all but one batter reached base during the game.
This was Murphy’s final non-conference game of the season, with the Bulldogs diving back into conference play Tuesday at Andrews before traveling to Robbinsville today and then hosting the Wildcats on Friday.