The Daily Times

Maryville came up with a couple top plays worth remembering early and strung together some solid hits late to offset a few throws worth forgetting Wednesday night as the Rebels rallied for a 13-3 run-rule win in six innings over LC at Scotland Yard.

Maryville (6-1, 3-0 District 4-AAA) finished off a 12-run rally with Baylee Delozier’s ribbie single. The sharp hit rewarded Nick Reynolds for a two-out RBI double, scoring the outfielder and bringing the mercy rule into play in the home side of the sixth. Landon Russell pinch hit to lead off the frame and reached on a seeing-eye single.

It was more of the steaming bat attack that banged out eight runs in the fifth as Maryville found the pace against a trio of Panther arms. Patrick Poteet and Greg Jones opened with consecutive singles that chased LC starter Chris Rowe. Brandon Selvidge (L, 0-1) came in to try and extinguish the Rebel rally and keep it a 3-3 affair but the Rebels were ready to put one away early after five one-run wins to start the campaign. Drew Curtis loaded the bases with a single and Landon Hawkins started the RBI meter soaring with a hard hit ribbie. Daniel Raby worked an RBI walk and Reynolds followed with a two-run shot to a gap in the grass. Delozier picked up the first of his two RBI on a sacrifice to center that brought in Logan Cano to relieve Selvidge after four runs over six batters.

“Our bats warmed up toward the end and we got a nice win. The main thing is to get the win,” Maryville skipper Jim Gaylor told The Daily Times. “We had a big emotional win with William Blount last night that ended on basically the last pitch of the game, had to worry some about a let down, at least we hung in there then took care of business with our bats.”

It was a bit of redemption for the Rebels who let the ball get away from them early as Lenoir City opened a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of five Maryville miscues. The Rebels limited the damage with some solid pitching from starter Patrick Poteet and a pair of defensive gems. Lenoir City started equalizing the error count — both teams finished with five — allowing Maryville to tie the game at 3 on the flip side of the fourth.

“We’re not happy with the errors. We made a couple big defensive plays, Nick Reynolds taking that flyball and throwing it in for a putout at home was big. Ben Young made a nice over the shoulder catch. We could have been down a lot more in the early innings,” Gaylor said. “We’re not happy with errors but glad we made the plays we did. There were mistakes we made, mental mistakes from some veteran guys, not covering bases in certain situations and things like that.”

Poteet (W, 2-0) worked the complete game, giving up six hits and hitting one but didn’t walk a Panther batter.

“Solid performance by Poteet, he’s not a guy that’s going to strike out 10 or 12. We have to play a little better behind him,” Gaylor said. “He kept us in the game which is what you want your starter to do in that situation. He didn’t give them many free bases which makes those errors not as costly.”

The game was originally scheduled as a home game for Lenoir City but unplayable field conditions prompted the officials to switch fields. Maryville will not play at LC on April 15.

MARYVILLE 13, LENOIR CITY 3 (6inn.)

LC 110 100 — 3 6 5

M 001 282 — 13 10 5

WP: Patrick Poteet (2-0). LP: Brandon Selvidge (0-1)

2B: M- Poteet, Greg Jones. REC: LC 1-1, 0-1; Maryville 6-1, 3-0.