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Archives
05-14-2003
Wildcats champions of District 7-AA Tournament
Dewain E. Peek/OCN staff Livingston Academy Wildcats ace Kyle Copeland throws a full-count strike against an Upperman Bee in Friday's semi-final win in the District 7-AA Tournament held at LA's Wildcat Field. Copeland had 11 strikeouts on the day.
By DEWAIN E. PEEK, OCN staff The District 7-AA Baseball Tournament looked to be a washout early last week, with day after day of rain, but eventually the clouds receded and baseball was played at Wildcat Field. LA Baseball Coach Pat Swallows said, "After three days of trying to get the field in shape, we were finally able to play on Thursday." The Wildcats faced the Lions of Cannon County on Thursday, May 8, and after a rocky start, won 8-4. "We got down 3-0 early because we made five errors in the first three innings," Coach Swallows said. "We recovered." A big bat in the recovery belonged to the man who took the mound for LA. "Cody Sells hit a 2-run shot that was a really big hit for us, after Cyrus singled to lead off the bottom of the third," Coach Swallows said. "We scored three times to tie it up in the bottom of the third. "We then got one in the fourth, one in the fifth, and three in the sixth to break it away. "Cody did a really good job. He gave up only three hits and no earned runs." The win put the Cats into the winner's bracket finals. Big Blue was set against the Upperman Bees, a team that came on strong at the end the regular season. The Wildcats had their ace on the mound, Kyle Copeland. Though LA scored a run in each of the first three innings, the Cats also left man after man on base when the inning ended. Upperman brought a man home in the third inning to tighten the LA lead to 3-1. Going into the sixth inning, Livingston still held only a 3-1 lead. Ryan Hartung appeared to be cruising for the Bees, but a critical error in the sixth inning allowed the Cats to smell blood. LA capitalized with five runs in the inning, three from a Cody Sells blast out of the park. Livingston Academy moved into the possible championship game of the double-elimination tournament with an 8-1 victory. Copeland struck out 11 Bee batters in the game, allowing only 4 hits. He also helped his own cause by going 4 for 4 at bat. Teammate Michael Poston was 3 for 4 in the game, and Sells was 2 for 4. Hartung took the hard luck loss for Upperman, allowing 8 runs on 8 hits, but only a single run earned. The following day, the Cats once more faced the Bees, who had dispatched DeKalb County's Tigers earlier in the day. LA jumped out in front early with a 2-run first inning, but Upperman responded with a run in the third and a couple more in the fourth to lead briefly 3-2. Livingston tied the game in the bottom of the inning. The Bees grabbed the lead again with a run in the top of the fifth, then the Cats had seen enough. LA scored 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth, then added 4 more in the sixth. The Baxter team pushed across a couple of runs in the seventh, but that was it. Livingston Academy took the District 7-AA Tournament championship with a 9-6 victory. Michael Murphy got the win in relief. Coach Swallows said, "He did a really good job coming in, shutting the door when we were in trouble. He hasn't thrown a lot this year, but when he has thrown, he's been solid." Michael Poston threw the last inning, striking out 2, and receiving a save for his effort. Cody Sells hit yet another home run, this time a 2-run bomb. The win pushed the LA overall record to 21-10-1. Livingston Academy then hosted the region semi-final game against Greenbrier (23-6) on Monday, May 12. Greenbrier proved too powerful for the Cats, who were outscored 11-0. Cats soccer team captures District 9 title
Lyndon Johnson/OCN staff Lance Ruanto eyes stealing the ball from the control of the DeKalb County player.
By LYNDON JOHNSON, OCN staff The Livingston Academy soccer program is seeing no shortage of tough competition as of late. Neither is it seeing any shortage of victories. The Wildcats entered the district soccer tournament last week seeded first. This gave them a bye in the first round and, as a result of their win at the finish of the regular season, guaranteed they would play at home during the tournament. The district semi-final game was played against DeKalb County on Thursday, May 8. The Tigers came out roaring, as they scored the opening goal early in the first half. The competition was fierce. LA's players seemed to be pushing themselves at times to keep up with the DeKalb offense. The Cats made a few good offensive runs, but they would amount to nothing. Until, that is, the DeKalb defense made a mistake. A big mistake. A handball inside the 18 yardbox set LA up with a penalty kick. Westley Burnett delivered the boot to the ball and managed to fool the goalkeeper into diving the wrong way. The net went swish, and the scoreboard tied up at one apiece. Later in the game, another foul inside the box set LA up with another penalty kick. Burnett again made good on the attempt, making the score 2-1 in Livingston's favor. Another DeKalb County foul in the box gave LA another penalty kick opportunity, and again, Burnett made good on it. The score was now 3-1. With some DeKalb fans in the crowd saying something to the effect, "They can only score on penalty kicks!Ó, Alex Gunnells proceeded to prove such a theorem false by scoring a goal late in the second half, upping LA's advantage and setting the score at 4-1. Such would be the final score. Only one card was given for the duration of the game, an ejection to a DeKalb County player whose elbow made too close of company with Wildcat Robert Brady's face in the later stages of the second half. LA Soccer Coach Ethan King said, "In a way we're kind of fortunate we got all the penalty kicks. "You don't usually see where you get so many in a game." The Cats advanced to the district championship game. The opponent was Boyd Christian School. The field was Living-ston's. And, alas, the first half was Boyd's. "We were more spectators than players the first half,Ó the coach said. "They outhustled us." The score at the end of the first half was 1-0, in favor of BCS. The second half would see a turnaround on the part of the Wildcats. Sophomore Andy Gunnells drove the ball into the back of the net on a breakaway run, albeit at the expense of getting what the coach called "wiped out". The game could very well have been heading for overtime, as tournament games cannot end in a tie, if not for the game winning goal of Ben Jolley. "They're not normally goal-scorers," Coach King said of Gunnells and Jolley, "but they stepped up, and that's what we had to have." Seven LA players received District 9 honors for the season's play. Drew Randolph, Westley Burnett, and Alex Gunnels were named 1st Team All-District. Cody Boles and Andy Gunnels were named 2nd Team All-District. Jacob Pennington and Brian McDonald received Honorable Mention recognition. LA was scheduled to play its first regional tournament game against Springfield High School on Tuesday, May 13. If the Wildcats win that game, LA will face either Donelson Christian Academy or Boyd Christian School on Thursday, May 15 for the region championship.
County Girls Softball League play underway Overton County Girls Softball League has begun the new season. Game scores for recent games are as follows: 16-Under Friday, May 9 Livingston Regional Hospital 12, Civitan 10 Union Bank 24, Livingston Ready Mix 7 10-Under Saturday, May 10 First National Bank 16, Union Bank 4 Overton County Medical Center 13, American Bank & Trust 2 12-Under Saturday, May 10 Speck Funeral Home 11, First National Bank 7 John Mark Windle Law Office 24, Berkline 14
Lady Cats end softball season in District 7-AA Tournament By ASHLEY HUNTER, OCN staff The end of Livingston Academy's softball season was nothing but soft as the Lady Wildcats wound up this year's campaign at the District 7-AA tournament in DeKalb County. The team began the tournament with a game against the Lionettes of Cannon County on Tuesday, May 6. The first inning was sour for LA offensively, as they couldn't manage to get any positive hits off and turn them into runs. Cannon County, however, managed to bring in 2 runs in the first frame. The bats did start flying for LA in the second inning, as Sarah Maynord, Andrea Borden, and Ashley Howard all managed to get around the bases for the Cats. The only bad part about that was that Cannon County also managed to get 2 more runs during the second inning. The third inning went scoreless for both teams. The situation didn't improve much in the fourth, as the only run scored was by Cannon County. The Lionettes outscored Livingston in the fifth, 2-1, as junior Aspen Allen was the only one to bring it around for LA. Cannon County got a run in the sixth, and Aspen Allen got another run in the seventh for the Lady Cats, to leave LA losing the game, 8-6. LA Softball Coach Mike Johnson said, "We had way too many mistakes to win the game. We should've beaten them. We didn't play as well as we could have." The loss put Livingston in the loser's bracket against the number one seeded team in the district, DeKalb County, on Thursday, May 8. The teams were evenly matched, if you leave DeKalb County's pitcher out of the picture. The balls just sailed past the LA girls as DeKalb County ran up the runs. Livingston didn't score a single run in the first six innings. DeKalb County, however, scored a run in the first, 2 runs in the second, and 3 runs in the fourth, to take the win over LA, who finally managed to get a run as senior Althea Allred scored the last run of the season in the seventh inning. The Tigerettes won the game, 7-1. Coach Johnson said, "Their pitcher was so dominating. We just couldn't put anything together with her." The season ended with a 10-17 record and many stars on the LA squad. Senior Ashley Johnson had the only home run of the season, as she hit two out of the park. The best varsity batting average belonged to Sarah Maynord, who hit .486 for the season. Ashley Johnson hit .480, Ashley Howard hit .426, and Andrea Borden hit .421. Sarah Maynord had 19 runs batted in. She was followed by Ashley Johnson with 15 RBI, Ashley Howard with 9, Whitney Walker with 8, Lisa Reeder with 6, Aspen Allen and Kristie Dillon each with 5, Althea Allred and Bethany Greenwood each with 4, and Stasha Babb with one. As far as stolen bases go, Sarah Maynord led the way once again with 19. Aspen Allen stole 17, Ashley Johnson stole 16, Althea Allred stole 13, and Stasha Babb stole 11 bases. Aspen Allen led the way in runs scored, with 23. Sarah Maynord and Stasha Babb each scored 17. At pitcher, Ashley Howard had 34 strikeouts. Coach Johnson said of the season, "We achieved our initial goals. We finished halfway up the district standings and got to 10 wins on the season. Next year we hope to do even better. "We hate to lose our seniors, but our players will have another year of experience under their belts, and we can't wait until next year."
Swallows leads in Cal Ripken 11-12 League Game scores for recent games are as follows: Friday, May 9 Saturday, May 10 Cal Ripken 11-12 League Standings
Family Dentistry leads Cal Ripken 9-10 League
Friday, May 9 LRH was led by J.W. Lee, who had 3 hits and scored 3 runs. Austin Bledsoe led Family Dentistry with 4 runs scored. Saturday, May 10 UC Sports was led by the pitching of Jonathon Melton, and 4 runs scored by Beau Carr. First National Bank 11, American Bank & Trust 5 FNB was led by the hitting of Marshall Cannon, Cody Sullivan, and Justin Savage. Cal Ripken 9-10 League Standings
Copeland leads Babe Ruth standings Rain washed out all games scheduled for Overton County Babe Ruth last week. Copeland Trucking is the top team in Overton County's Babe Ruth Baseball League. Babe Ruth League Standings
Overton County News
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