PIGEON FORGE — Out of the nine starters in the lineup for Pigeon Forge in their 2A State Championship game last May, only four of them took to the field for the Tigers in their game against William Blount on Thursday, March 16.
The Tigers fell short against the Governors 11-4, a sign another trip to Murfreesboro won’t come as easily as it did last year.
“We’re young, we’re playing bigger schools, we’re going to take some lumps with these young guys,” Tigers Head Coach Mike Guinn said. “But, we’re going to put them out there, just let them play and see what happens.”
The Tigers graduated seven seniors from their state runner-up team last year, including 2A Mr. Baseball Riley Franklin.
Guinn said this year is going to take some patience as they try to work in some of these new faces, including a pair of freshmen that entered the lineup against William Blount.
“We’re just young, it’s going to take time,” said Guinn.
The Tigers found themselves in a hole early on as William Blount put five runs on the board in the top of the first inning.
However, Pigeon Forge looked poised to come back in this one, putting up an impressive first inning of their own.
Trevan Myers and Michael McCarter both reached first base to start out the inning. This brought Dylan Loy to the plate, who knocked one into the outfield for a double and brought both Myers and McCarter back across home plate.
The comeback looked to be on the way as the next batter was catcher Conner Catlett, one of only three seniors on the roster for the Tigers this year. Catlett knocked the ball over the centerfield wall for a two-shot home run to cut the William Blount lead to 5-4.
However, the Tigers struggled to find much hitting past that point in the game, with Loy being the only batter with multiple hits in this one, batting 3-4.
Freshman Dalton Cole took over on the mound midway through this one, where he struck out four batters in just a little over three innings.
William Blount added another run in the top of the third, but the game remained in reach for the Tigers. However, a run in the fifth inning, three runs in the sixth, and another run in the seventh would put the game out of reach as William Blount walked away with an 11-4 win.
Though the outcome wasn’t the desired one for the Tigers, Guinn said they have to view it as another opportunity to get those young guys on the field and gain some in-game experience.
“We got to play,” Guinn said about the positives they’ll take from the game. “We’re going to have to learn to deal with adversity and get better through it, that’s it. We’ll be fine.”
As far as what he hopes his team learns from this game, Guinn said to not let that performance be the standard. He hopes his team learns from the loss and continues to work and improve from it.
“I just told them don’t let it be the norm, just don’t let this be who you are. You have to go in there and grind and get better, we have guys working hard and they are getting better,” he said. “It didn’t show a lot late in the game, but I think they are working hard.”
The biggest thing that Guinn is hoping to instill in his younger players, and even the upperclassmen who are just now making their way into the lineup, is confidence in their abilities.
“We’re throwing them out there and playing against older kids, just getting confidence is the biggest thing,” Guinn said. “We’re young, have to build confidence, but it just takes time, we’ll have to be patient with them.”
The Tigers get into district play on Monday, March 20, and Tuesday, March 21, as they have back-to-back games against Cumberland Gap. The Tigers will travel for the first game on Monday, before finishing the series on their home field Tuesday night.
