MORRISTOWN, TN – No. 17 Walters State got off to a strong start to TCCAA play Thursday afternoon, grabbing an 11-0 seven-inning win over Pellissippi State.
With the victory, the Senators improved to 11-0-1 overall and 1-0 in TCCAA play.
Walker Morgan (3-0) got the start on the mound for Walters State and threw five innings. Morgan allowed no runs on two hits while striking out six. For the season, Morgan has struck out 15 in 13 innings of work.
After Morgan, Reilly Byers struck out the side in an inning of work before Matthew Porchas closed things out with a clean seventh inning.
At the plate, Jack Torbett hit his first home run of the season and drove in four runs. Along with Torbett, Nate Conner hit a solo home run while five others drove in runs. Taylor Harris, Holden Pantier, Justin Bell and Hayden Blair all had doubles.
Morgan got in some trouble to start the game, putting two on with no outs in the top of the first. However, after a mound meeting with pitching coach Sean Robinson, Morgan got a strikeout, flyout and groundout to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the first, Harris led off with a double for the Senators, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a Pantier RBI double to make it 1-0.
That was the score until the third when Conner smoked a solo home run to up the lead to 2-0. In the fourth, Walters State blew the game open with six more runs. Kole Fenton started things off with a fielder's choice that scored Tyler Myatt, and Torbett slugged a three-run home run to right that made it 6-0. The final two runs of the inning came on a Jack Vogele RBI single and a Myatt RBI single that made it 8-0.
Walters State's final three runs of the game came in the fifth inning, as Torbett grounded out to score Carson Cabbage, Harris grounded out to score Fenton and Bell doubled in Atticus Goodson to make it 11-0.
Up Next:
Walters State and Pellissippi State will play two more times on Friday. The doubleheader is set to begin at 11 am.
