Murphy’s baseball and softball teams ended the season on a high note by picking up wins in their final series of the regular season against Hayesville.
The Lady Dogs swept to wrap up their regular season and the baseball team handed the Yellow Jackets their first conference loss of the season.
Baseball
In their final series of the regular season, the Dogs split their series with Hayesville.
In the first game on April 29, they fell 17-5, ending a three-game win streak. The Dogs took an early 2-0 lead, but that was quickly gone as the Yellow Jackets scored nine runs in the bottom of the first.
After a scoreless second inning, Hayesville tacked on seven more runs to lead 16-2. The Dogs then added two more runs in the top of the fourth to trailed 16-4. Hayesville added one more run in the bottom of the fourth, then the Dogs scored one in the top of the fifth to net the final 17-5.
The Dogs’ runs were scored by Zack Hogsed, Grayson Hall, Aayden Williams, Evan Wilson and Alex Roldan.
It was a different story in the regular season finale on Thursday as the Dogs handed the Jackets their first conference loss of the season.
After opening the game with a scoreless inning, the Dogs got on the board in the bottom of the second.
Michael Brown scored the first run of the game on a Williams bunt to make it 1-0. With the bases loaded, Hall was walked to score Caleb Kephart to make it 2-0. With the bases still loaded, Hogsed was walked, scoring Williams to give the Dogs a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the fourth, the Jackets scored one run to trail 3-1. In the top of the seventh, the Jackets made it a one-run game, but the Dogs shut down a potential rally to win the game 3-2.
Colton Morgan and Roldan split pitching duties in the regular season finale. Both gave up a run each. Morgan had seven strikeouts.
At the game, seniors Adam Cook, Caleb Kephart and Alex Roldan were honored.
The Dogs finished the regular season 8-11 overall and 8-4 in the Smoky Mountain Conference.
Softball
The Lady Dogs wrapped up their regular season with a series sweep against Hayesville.
They started the series on the road on April 29 with a 9-3 win. Hayesville took an early lead with two runs in the first inning.
The Lady Dogs made it a one run game in the second inning as Emma Hensley scored on a Paisley Johnson sacrifice ground out. In the third inning they tied it up when Emma Laney scored on a Hensley single.
They took the lead with one run in the fourth inning when Gracie Thrasher scored on a Julia Dockery single.
After taking the lead, the Lady Dogs only extended it with two run in each of the final three innings to win the game 9-3.
Senior Aiden Smith hit her first home run of the season to help the Lady Dogs win. Dockery and Laney also had triples. Hensley had three stolen bases and Paisley Johnson and Lady had one each.
Johnson threw a 123-pitch complete game giving up three runs on seven hits. She also struck out 11 batters.
The Lady Dogs wrapped up their regular season Thursday with a 8-0 win. They took the got the scoring started in the second inning with a run. In the fourth, their bats got hot and they scored six runs to lead 7-0. They added one more in the sixth inning to win 8-0.
Johnson had her second home run of the season in their regular season finale. They also combined for six stolen bases. Dockery had three stolen bases and Jenna Cook, Gracie Moore and Aa’Liyah Grant had one each.
Johnson struck out 11 Hayesville batters in the win to bring her season strikeout total to 161.
At the game, they honored seniors Smith and Dockery.
With the win, they ended the regular season with a 13-7 overall record and they went 8-4 in the conference.