Cope gets 1st ‘W’ vs Dawgs
BEARDEN — Round one of baseball between longtime District 4-4A rivals Farragut High School and Bearden went down at BHS’s Phil Garner Ballpark Wednesday evening, March 26.
And the Admirals quickly erased any home field advantage the Bulldogs might have had.
FHS put up five runs in its first at-bat, built an 11-2 lead through six innings and won 11-5. The game gave both teams 2-1 district records. Farragut improved to 9-4 overall while Bearden fell to 11-2.
“I thought we did a good job,” Admirals’ skipper Garrett Copeland said. “I thought we were successful offensively. Always good to walk away with a win.”
Farragut had strong and disciplined hitting throughout the game — 10 hits and six walks — as well as six good innings of pitching. Starter Cole Draper went four innings, giving up one earned run on six hits. He struck out four and walked one.
“That’s what we expect from Cole,” Copeland said. “He’s a fundamental piece in our rotation. We expect him to come out there and compete every single day.”
“I felt great,” said Draper, a senior righthander. “It makes it easier when you get out there and get a bunch of runs early on.”
Farragut’s five-run first included a two-run single by Travis Brummitt Jr., which scored both Eli Tittle, who was running for Jake Harris, and Aidan Flagg. A two-run triple by Braden Humphrey scored Brummitt and Owen Stelzer.
In that inning, BHS starter Evan Cope also gave up two walks and threw a wild pitch, and the team committed two errors.
“Tough first inning, that’s the difference,” Dave Prichard, Bulldogs head coach, said. “When you have a chance to have a 1-2-3 inning and you don’t make plays defensively. … I think it was a good ballgame that never got a chance to happen.”
Bearden cut it to 5-1 in the third on Cope’s run-scoring bunt, but the Admirals promptly got the run back in the fourth when Harris’ ground-out scored TJ Renker.
FHS led 7-2 after five, then blew it open with three in the sixth inning. Renker and Neyland Williams led off with singles, then advanced on Harris’ groundout.
Braxton Tye’s single — a popup that dropped just beyond short because it got lost in the lights — scored Renker. Flagg’s double then brought in Williams. Zain Kureshi-Smith’s groundout then plated Tye to make it 10-2.
Williams’ sac fly in the seventh scored Humphrey to make it 11-2.
Grayson Wright’s two-run homer was part of the Dawgs’ three-run seventh. Benny Miller came on to get the final out.
“Gotta do a better job of closing out the game,” Copeland said. “Beyond that, I’m pleased with our performance.”
“We clean up a couple things (and) that’s really a fun game,” Prichard said. “There’s a lot of baseball to be played and it’s gonna be fun.”
Round two is Monday, April 14, at Farragut.
