Raiders sweep season series with Comets

Miranda H. Lewis

Carter County Times

Expectations are high during the season for baseball teams, especially if you’re the defending 62nd district champion East Carter High School.

Teams such as West Carter welcome the Raiders on their turf, looking to take down the defending champions.

But to do that, you must play at your best over the course of seven innings or more.

On Tuesday, April 28 the Comets fell short of that goal.

The Raiders drew first blood on a two-run homerun by Evan Goodman for an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

This feat was just the start of a hit parade for the Raider squad as they broke open game two of the district series.

Comet outfielder Corey Hedge ran down a hard ball into the right field to give the Raiders their second out.

Ty Scott beat out a stand-up-double into the right field.

Blake Hall lined a two-run dinger to right center field, scoring Scott to give East Carter a 4-0 advantage.

West Carter managed to get off to a great start in the bottom of the first.

Leadoff batter Kale Back beat out a hard hit ball into the gap for a groundroll double.

Cleanup hitter Jake Carter hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Back to put the Comets on the board 4-1.

After an eventful first inning, Gavin Sexton ushered in the top of the second with a single for East Carter.

With a 2-1 count, Levi Hutchinson drove in Sexton with a single to make it a 5-1 game.

Following a strikeout by Scott, Goodman reached first base on four balls.

Tomolonis hit a deep sacrifice fly to center to plate Hutchinson.

Jaxon Barker then drove in two runs with a hard hit bases-loaded single.

Gavin Sexton contributed an RBI single to give the Raiders a 10-1 lead.

East Carter erupted for nine runs in the second inning to go up 13-1.

But despite this commanding early East Carter lead, West Carter showed discipline at the plate in the bottom of the second.

Ty Stinson beat out an infield single and Isaac Owens walked.

The East Carter team still had gas in their tank though, and were clicking on all cylinders as they would go on to sweep the annual district series. 

At the top of the third, Barker drove in Scott with his second RBI single of the affair for the Raiders.

Sexton golfed a 0-1 pitch down the center gap to plate two runs, finalizing a 16-1 score.

In the back-to-back games, the Raiders offense exploded for 28 runs and the pitching staff only allowed three hits.

Junior pitcher Tomolonis got the W in the circle for the Raiders in the series finale. He fanned three batters over three innings of work and had a pick off at first base.

Goodman and Hall both went 2-for-2. Goodman tallied three RBIs and Hall nabbed two, alongside their first inning homeruns.

Run-producing at-bats by Back and Carter made for an exciting start for West Carter early in the contest.

Back went 1-for-2 and touched home once. Carter was 1-for-1 with an RBI.

East Carter will try to extend its winning streak against Ashland Blazer, Thursday, April 27 while West Carter hopes to get back on track against Fairview on Friday, April 28.

Contact the writer at miranda@cartercountytimes.com