It’s probably safe to say that the Boyd Buchanan Buccaneers have one of the best baseball teams in Chattanooga this spring and possibly in the state of Tennessee for that matter.
The Bucs had an 11-game winning streak snapped last week, but they didn’t miss a beat and have now won five more after a doubleheader sweep of region foe Notre Dame Monday afternoon at Boyd Buchanan.
The Fighting Irish had been playing well in recent days as they entered Monday’s play with a five-game winning streak. But Monday was one of those days that coach Gatlyn Simmons hopes can be erased from the memory bank quickly after that winning streak was snapped as the Bucs won both games in five innings, the first by a 12-1 final and the second by a 10-0 score.
Notre Dame is now 12-10 overall and 3-5 in region play while the Buccaneers improve to 18-2 overall and 4-1 in region play.
The Bucs did all of their scoring in the first game in odd-number innings as they put up four in the first, five in the third before wrapping things up with three in the fifth.
Notre Dame avoided a shutout in the first game when Braylon Hammond drove in Riley Roberts with an RBI-single in the second.
Boyd Buchanan coach Stephen Pryor is having as much fun as anyone this spring, so for his team to win two games at home on Monday when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was actually great baseball weather with temperatures in the mid-80s was a positive for the former major leaguer.
“We continue to swing the bats well and Read Butler pitched another great game, so all is well on this side,” Pryor smiled between games while relaxing in the Boyd Buchanan equipment shed at the end of the dugout.
“Read had a great outing his last time out, so It was good for him to have two in a row as he threw strikes and was in complete control the whole game. But we just kept a trend going as my guys played relaxed and loose. More importantly, they had a lot of fun as well.
“But this is a big district win for us and that’s always a good thing,” Pryor added.
Notre Dame’s Simmons was anything but happy when the first game ended as his team struggled defensively with four infield errors on basic routine grounders that should have been converted to outs.
“That was horrible, absolutely horrible,” Simmons said matter of factly between games.
“There was no sense of competitiveness on our side and it’s hard to win when you give up a dozen hits, but we just showed up totally flat with no energy. We lose every time we play when it’s like that,” he nodded.
Have of Boyd’s runs in the first game scored as a result of Notre Dame errors, but the Bucs also hit the ball on the nose as 10 of the 12 players who got to bat had at least one hit.
Brodie Johnston and Brodie Lowe both had two hits. Lowe had a run-scoring double in the first while Eli Gardenhire had an RBI single.
Haden Griffith, Cooper Jones, Logan Martin, Caden Henry, Devin Shannon and Jonathon Tinker all had a hit while pinch-hitter Bo Evans had a two-run single with two outs in the fifth to end the game.
Butler was the winning pitcher after allowing one run on two hits while walking one and striking out seven.
Keegan Smith was the loser for the Irish after allowing nine runs on eight hits in three innings of work. He also had four strikeouts and no walks while hitting two.
These same two teams will play the third game of the series on Tuesday afternoon at Notre Dame.
FIRST GAME SUMMARY
NOTRE DAME 010 00 – 1 2 4
BOYD BUCHANAN 405 03 – 12 12 0
Smith, Johnston (4) and Jones; Butler and Tinker.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)