Murphy – It was all there for the taking for the Bulldogs on June 8. Up 5-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh against undefeated Hayesville, Murphy needed just three outs to get back into the Smoky Mountain Conference championship race. Instead, the Yellow Jackets had an answer, scoring three to take their first lead of the game and win, 6-5.
“One thing we talk about is there’s no play clock, time clock. You play until you get three outs,” Murphy head coach Adam Clonts said. “Certain things can happen if the other team hits the ball. They hit the ball there in the seventh inning, and they had runners in scoring position and scored some runs.”
After Briggs Cornwell gave Murphy six strong innings on the mound until he felt like he was out of gas, Clonts turned to senior Dawson Hensley, who has been a spark plug all season. Unfortunately, Hensley tripped and fell on the mound while throwing his first warm-up pitch, which was a sign of things to come.
He walked Connor Bradley on five pitches to leadoff the inning, then Avery Leatherwood sliced a triple down the right-field line to cut the lead to 5-4. After going behind 3-0 on Jeremy Stewart, Hensley worked back with two strikes before walking him. With runners on the corners, Clayton Vandiver crushed a pitch deep to center field, and Leatherwood and Stewart scored before centerfielder Payton McCracken could even attempt a throw to the plate.
The Yellow Jackets (13-0 overall and in the Smoky Mountain Conference) dugout poured out onto the field to celebrate their first Smoky Mountain Conference championship since 2014. Meanwhile, Murphy (11-2) walked off the field, stunned, after watching a game it led from the top of the first slip away.
“I had 100 percent confidence in him in that situation,” Clonts said of Hensley. “They made good contact, had runners on base and they were in the top of their lineup.”
After losing to Hayesville 10-1 on May 14, the Bulldogs were much more prepared for the rematch. For that game, Murphy had just gotten the football players back into the fold after they helped win a state championship and hadn’t gelled as a team yet. The Bulldogs won nine straight and outscored opponents 91-19 after that loss.
Hayesville pitcher Jeremy Stewart shut down Murphy in the first game, but the Bulldogs didn’t back down this time. In the top of the first, Cornwell smashed a pitch well over the center-field fence to give Murphy a 2-0 lead.
Hayesville would tie the game in the second with an RBI single from Dakota Matheson and an RBI double from Bradley, but Hensley answered for the Bulldogs in the top of the third with a two-run double.
That hit, along with Cornwell’s home run, kept the energy high in the Murphy dugout.
A 45-minute rain delay happened in between the top and bottom of the third, though it didn’t seem to hinder either team. A single by Jesse Kephart that went past the left fielder extended Murphy’s lead to 5-2 in the top of the fifth, and Kyle Lunsford got the run back with an RBI single of his own in the bottom of the inning.
“I’ve been telling them as long as we put pressure on them, we have a chance to win,” Clonts said. “And we did, we just came up short in the bottom of the seventh.”
The Bulldogs beat Hiwassee Dam 3-1 on Friday night and will play Starmount in the first round of the playoffs Tuesday night, which took place after the Cherokee Scout went to press.