Grayson County ends Greenwaves’ season in 3rd Region opener By Zach Greenwell Just days after winning the 11th District championship, the Meade County baseball team (7-20) fell to Grayson County, 12-9, in the first round of the 3rd Region tournament on May 28. The Greenwaves were tied with the Cougars in the bottom of the fifth inning at 7-7, but Meade surrendered four runs with three errors in the top of the sixth. “Our pitching could have been better and our defense wasn’t very good at times – we had two bad innings,” said Meade head coach Daren Snell. “The two things that carried us all year were our pitching and our defense and neither one really played well.” Grayson County jumped out to a 3-0 lead through three innings, but the Greenwaves responded by scoring four runs in the bottom of the third. Seniors Jordan Alexander, Cambron Rockwood and Drew Stankiewicz knocked back-to-back-to-back doubles to score three runs, and fellow senior T.J. Millay then scored Rockwood on a single. “We hit the ball well the whole game,” said Snell. “For one of the first times, it was the other parts of our game that hurt us.” Another double by Alexander in the bottom of the fourth inning extended Meade’s lead to 6-4, but the Cougars answered right back with a three-run home run off of senior Corey Thomas in the top of the fifth to put Grayson back up on top, 7-6. “It was good hitting,” said Snell. “The pitch wasn’t even that bad – it was down in the zone and a little bit in and the kid jerked it over the right field fence. That was really the only mistake he (Thomas) made in that inning.” The Greenwaves scored one run to tie in the bottom of the fifth, but Grayson broke the game open in the sixth with the four-run barrage in the error-filled inning. Meade would go on to score two more runs, but it wasn’t enough as the 11th District champs fell, 12-9. Stankiewicz, who started the game, took a no decision on the mound. Thomas took the loss in over three innings of work. “He (Thomas) didn’t pitch that bad,” said Snell. “He just had a lot of errors behind him.” After a disappointing regular season with only six wins, Snell said he is still pleased with what the team accomplished while overcoming adversity. “It was a little disappointing, but in all honesty we probably beat who we were supposed to beat and we beat a couple we probably weren’t supposed to beat,” said Snell. “We gave away a couple games, but considering we lost Riley (Benock, shortstop) and Chris Roe (third basemen) who are two fairly decent hitters, we did the best we could.” “The guys we had gave it their all and played hard every game,” he said. “Brooks Benton was just phenomenal at third base, and we were pretty good defensively all year. We just couldn’t hit the ball in the first two-thirds of the season.” Despite the disappointment, Snell knows this Greenwave team will always be known for bringing home the first district title in over 50 years. “It makes it a whole lot easier to swallow to get the first district championship in a heck of a long time,” he said. “That’s a big accomplishment for them and I don’t think anybody expected us to win it except us. They always went into every game with the mind frame that they could win it, though.” Click Here to Go Back
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