On Monday evening, the Paducah Tilghman Blue Tornado traveled to Graves County for a contest with the Eagles. The Blue Tornado shut out the Eagles 8-0.
The game opened with the Blue Tornado drawing a walk and a hit by pitch from the top two hitters in their lineup, Levin East and Jaylen Seay respectively. Seay would later score the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Gunner Massey. On that same play, Eagles right fielder Coby Mullins threw out Hank James at third, after he attempted to tag up and advance from second base, for a double play to get the Eagles out of the inning.
After that, both teams’ bats would be shut down for a few innings by each team’s starting pitchers. Caleb Payne got the start for the Blue Tornado, and Cole Woodward for the Eagles.
It was not until the top of the fifth inning that another run would be scored. Two errors in the inning plagued the Eagles and allowed the Blue Tornado to stretch their lead to five by scoring four runs in the inning.
In the top of the sixth inning the Blue Tornado scored three more runs to add to their lead.
“We changed our approach,” Paducah Tilghman head coach Tremayne Donald said. “When you have quality at-bats, you get good results from it. When you have selfish at-bats is when you don’t get good results.”
Blue Tornado pitching dominated the Eagles as Payne pitched five innings and allowed just three hits. Burke Waggoner entered in relief and pitched the final two innings. Waggoner allowed just two hits during his appearance.
“We pounded the zone and threw strikes,” Donald said. “That’s what our guys have been doing all year. We played defense a lot better than we did this past Saturday. We played a clean game.”
The Eagles had chances with players on base throughout the game but Blue Tornado pitching was able to work around any threat from the Eagles. They also came up with multiple double plays to help end Eagles rallies.
The Blue Tornado will be at home on Tuesday night to host Hopkinsville at 6 p.m., while the Eagles will host Mayfield in the battle of the birds at 7:15 p.m.
PDCH 1 0 0 0 4 3 0 — 8-10-0
GRVS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0-5-3
2B: PT — J. Seay; GC — D. DeFreitas
TB: PT — J. Seay 4, B. Douglas 2, C. Payne 2, A. Nunn 1, B. Waggoner 1, H. James 1; GC — D. DeFreitas 3, C. Toon 1, D. Hayden 1, C. Mullins 1
