By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Whether it was USA Stadium in Millington or just up the road at Tipton-Rosemark Academy, the hot bats have traveled with the Munford Cougars throughout the opening week of TSSAA Baseball.
Friday afternoon the Cougars’ sticks warmed up the chilly atmosphere at Rebel Field early and often leading to a 20-4 win over the FACS Crusaders in 6 innings.
“Opening week has been going really well,” Munford Skipper Scotty Yount said. “We didn’t play well against Houston on Monday. A few mental mistakes and we kind of let that one get away from us. Our bats were pretty good. We hit some ball hard but right at people.
“That’s kind of been the thing all week,” he continued. “We’ve hit a lot of balls hard in the games we won. A gap shot away from putting them away pretty early. Really thought it was a matter of time because we can hit up and down the lineup.”
Prior to the FACS contest, the Cougars were 2-1 with the only defeat coming to Houston on opening day. Since that game, Munford has been stroking the ball to victory.
Against FACS, the Cougars jumped out 4-0 after one inning. Munford added 6 more runs by the fifth inning to go ahead 10-4.
Then the Cougars iced the game in the sixth frame with 10 runs alone. The first big blow of the inning came courtesy of the bat of Hunter Reed driving in a pair of runs with a single.
The Crusaders gave Munford a run with an error and a bases loaded walk of Braden Sestina made the tally 14-4.
Moments later a bases clearing triple made the scoreboard read 17-4. Chris Swords drove in the next RBI for Munford with a single. Then Shane Cox hit the ball off the wall to make the score 19-4.
“I was really proud of our guys today,” Yount said. “Really a lot of good at bats and we hit ball really hard. About time we had a little break through.
“All we’ve asked out of our guys and I told you in the preseason we will depend on our seniors,” he added. “With the expectation of Monday we threw strikes. That’s what they did today, they threw strikes and we made plays.”
The first five days of the 2020 season brought Munford a 3-1 record. During the midst of the three-game winning streak, the nation and world was rocked by the coronavirus.
From profession to collegiate, several sports have been either suspended or canceled to limit the spread of the virus. The ripple effect of the pandemic has reached the Volunteer State.
Most local school districts made the decision by Friday afternoon to cancel school and all related activities for at least two weeks.
“First and foremost everybody’s health is the No. 1 concern,” Yount concluded. “We’re not going to worry about things that are not in our control. If we get put on a dead period, there’s nothing we haven’t been through that we can’t handle. So we’ll just do what we’ve got to do and we’ll be ready when they say ‘play ball.’”
