MORRISTOWN, TN – No. 1 Walters State fought off a late Roane State rally on Tuesday afternoon, closing out their home regular season slate with a 7-5 victory. 

The contest was a non-conference game and improved the Senators record to 49-4. 

"Roane has been playing well as of late," Walters State coach Dave Shelton said. "For us, we're still fighting complacency a little bit. We have a little bit of a lack of mental toughness at times that causes us to go to sleep on some things. We've just got to get ourselves locked back in and focused and just try to head into the tournament on a high note."

Geo Rivera got the start on the mound for the Senators, making his first start since March 4. Rivera pitched three shutout innings, not allowing a hit while striking out five. 

With the win, Rivera improves to 6-0 on the season. 

"It's different for a guy when he starts than when he relieves," Shelton said. "That's why we started him midweek because we wanted to try and get him one more feel of starting just in case we need him to in the postseason. I thought he did fine." 

Luke Ferguson replaced Rivera in the fourth inning and pitched a scoreless inning before being relieved by Landon Slemp who gave up a run in his inning of work.

Bracken Rice then pitched a scoreless sixth inning before making way for Landon Crumbley. Crumbley pitched two scoreless innings before finding trouble in the ninth with one out. Crumbley gave up four runs and was replaced by Ty Cobb with the bases loaded. Cobb got the final two outs without letting another run cross the plate. 

At the plate, Kruise Newman had two hits to lead the way for the Senators while Andrew Ott drove in two runs. 

Walters State struck first in the ballgame with a run in the bottom of the first. Noah Gent brought that run home with a sacrifice fly.

The Senators added two more runs to their lead in the second as Ott hit an RBI groundout while Declan Wiesner also had an RBI groundout. 

Walters State would go quiet after that as the only run for the next five innings came from Roane State to make it a 3-1 game. The Senators finally broke back through in the eighth with four runs to make it 7-1. Nick Block and Newman singled in the inning before Corbin Shaw walked to load the bases. A bases-loaded walk to Ott made it 4-1 before Cole McCallum had an RBI groundout that scored Shaw and Dalton McLain. The final run came on a double steal that allowed Ott to score. 

"We just have a tendency to fall asleep and sleep walk at the plate," Shelton said. "We are really good when we are mentally tough and focused. But we struggle when we're not. We just have to fight that and have a little more toughness to stay locked in." 

Up Next:

Walters State will close out the regular season over the weekend, traveling to take on Columbia State. First pitch for Friday's game is set for 5 p.m. 

"With Columbia, you have to do a lot of things," Shelton said. "They tend to put a lot of pressure on you. If you're not mentally locked in, they are a team that can eat you alive. We just need to worry about us. It'll be good competition." 

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics