By Steve Williams
It was a start.
Austin-East notched its first win over a TSSAA sanctioned team last Thursday, defeating Hancock County 15-5 at Raleigh Wynn Field.
The Roadrunners’ first two victories had come against Apostolic Christian School of Knoxville.
“We lost a close one (7-6) to Carter, but we’re getting there,” said Head Coach Sanford “Smitty” Smith.
“We’re preaching basic fundamentals and we’re getting the guys’ IQ up about baseball. We’re feeding it to them and they are beginning to buy in. We’re not doing anything different other than basic fundamentals and we’re trying to tell them how good they can be.
“And have a better attitude. We use the words attitude and altitude. You can’t get a good altitude unless you have a good attitude. And that’s what we are preaching to them – altitude and attitude. So they are beginning to buy in. We’re beginning to do all kinds of fundamentals out here on the field that they’ve never had before and we’re just grateful that they are beginning to buy in.
“We still got a long way to go because you can’t turn a horse in full stride. You got to slow the horse down and that’s what we’re doing. We’re slowing them down, slowing them down and teaching them day by day on what to do and what not to do.”
Hancock County got off to a 4-2 lead, but Austin-East had back-to-back five-run innings to go in front 12-4. The Roadrunners added three more runs in the fourth and ended up winning in five innings due to the 10-run rule.
Senior shortstop Justin Pruitt, who joined the baseball team after the basketball season ended, went 3 for 4 with two triples.
Nymere Jackson, the sophomore pitcher, also went 3 for 4.
Junior first baseman Kaysan Davis went 2 for 4 and had three RBIs.
Juel Houston, the second baseman, was 2 for 4 with four runs batted in.
Junior catcher David Weaver doubled and hit a home run.
Even though A-E lost 9-0 to rival Fulton Friday, the game went a full seven innings.
The Roadrunners will host Northview Academy today.
