By WAYNE PHILLIPS

Sports Editor

Greeneville scored four times in the first inning without the benefit of a base hit, and the Greene Devils closed out their regular season Wednesday with a 7-4 victory over the Cherokee Chiefs in an IMAC game at Dale Alexander Field.

Pitcher Elliott Malone survived a shaky first inning, then recovered to go the distance on the mound and pick up the win.

The victory, their second in as many days over the Chiefs, leaves the Greene Devils with a break-even 5-5 mark in the conference, 11-15 overall, and their next game will be Friday night in the District 2-AAA Tournament at Cocke County. The Devils will take on the host school at 5:30 p.m.

Wildness on the part of starting Cherokee pitcher Brandon Laster helped Greeneville get off to a good start in their first time at the plate after giving up three runs to the Chiefs in the top half of the first frame.

The Chiefs roughed up Malone by scoring three times, helped along by two Greeneville errors. Colin Elliott, Jed Fisher and Jacob Fleenor had base hits in the inning, with Fleenor's hit driving in one run and two more runs coming across on GHS fielding errors.

But when Greeneville came to the plate, Laster immediately had trouble finding the strike zone. He faced five batters and four of them walked. The first three GHS runs scored on wild pitches as the ball careened to the backstop on more than a few occasions.

Ethan Blair came on in relief. He walked two more batters before settling down. The fourth GHS run scored when Eric Idell reached with the bases loaded on a catcher's interference call.

That left the Greene Devils with a 4-3 advantage, then both pitchers settled down through the next four innings with no more runs scoring, although each squad had chances. Malone gave up a lead-off walk in the second, a one-out single in the third, a two-out double in the fourth, and a one-out double in the fifth, but each time Greeneville was able to get out of it with no damage done.

The Devils were able to plate three more runs to give themselves some breathing room in the bottom of the fifth. Justin Merkle walked and Malone reached on a bunt single. Both those runners were later able to score on a base hit by Ben Jennings and a fielder's choice by Trey Jaynes. Eric Idell also had an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Cherokee got one more run in the top of the sixth to close to 7-4. Fleenor reached on a lead-off walk and later scored on a two-out double by Ryan Hake. But that would be as close as the Chiefs would get.

Cherokee outhit the Devils 7-5, led by Hake with two doubles. Cody Duncan had a double and Jaynes, Merkle, Malone and Jennings one hit each for GHS.

Ch AB R H GHS AB R H

Hake,rf 4 0 2 Bolton,ss 3 1 0

Elliott,lf 4 1 1 Jaynes,3b 4 0 1

Fisher,1b 4 1 1 C.D'can,1b 3 1 1

Blair,ss 4 1 1 Hall,lf 3 1 0

Ivey,3b 4 0 1 Merkle,c 2 2 1

Laster,p 4 0 0 Malone,p 2 1 1

Fleenor,2b 2 1 1 Tilson,rf 3 0 0

Manis,c 3 0 0 Jen'ngs,cf 2 1 1

Buell,cf 2 0 0 Idell,2b 1 0 0

TOTALS 31 4 7 TOTALS 23 7 5

2b Hits: Ch-Hake 2, Blair; GHS-C.Duncan. WP: Malone. LP: Laster.

Score by innings:

Cherokee 300 001 0--4 7

Greeneville 400 030 x--7 5

GHS JVs Are Winners

Greeneville and Cherokee got together Wednesday evening to close out the baseball season and the final score came down to a single run, just as the night before. The only difference was the Greene Devils took this one 8-7 in 8 innings.

Greeneville scored three times in the first to take an early 3-0 lead, but Cherokee bounced back with two in the second and three in the third to take a 5-3 advantage. The Greene Devils would tie the score up with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third, only to see the Chiefs retaliate with a pair of runs in the fourth to lead 7-5.

With single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth, the home team tied the score at seven runs each and force extra innings.

Things would stay this way until the bottom of the eighth. James Ricker reached on an infield throwing error and then give way to a pinch runner, Ethan Jones. Brock Church and Tyler Bible then loaded the bases with back to back bunt singles. The game winning RBI would come from the next batter, Kip Grooms, as the throw home, following a ground ball, was wide of the plate, allowing Jones to score from third.

Greeneville was led at the plate by Brock Church (HR and single), followed by Tyler Bible, Kip Grooms, and Tyler Bowman (all with two singles). Brock Church picked up the win with one inning of relief. The Greene Devils close out the year at 13-14.