Pigeon Forge Rebounds, Defeats Eagleton To Claim District Title

On a night where the Pigeon Forge Tigers were to honor their senior players, they had only one thing on their minds: defending their home turf. Their goal was to defeat Eagleton, especially after the Royals handed them their first loss of the year just one night earlier."

"We wanted to see how they would respond, we're not going to win every game. Eagleton's a good ball club and they got the best of us last night. We just told our guys, let's go play the way we like to play and we did that tonight." stated Mike Guinn following his team's victory.

Senior Dalton Cole started on the mound for Pigeon Forge and was in control from the first batter, until he struck out the final batter of the game to clinch the district championship for the Tigers over Eagleton with a 4-1 victory.

Cole sat the Royals down in order on only 9 pitches in the first inning, making quick work of Eagleton.

The Tigers would pounce to claim an early 3-0 lead following a single from leadoff man Jaxon Allen, and error on a hard hit ground ball by Brody Watson allowed him to reach and give the Tigers runners on 1st and 2nd quickly. Senior David Price would deliver the first run for PF, on a single to right field which allowed Allen to scamper home.

Watson advanced to third on the same play and the Tigers were still in business with runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs. Watson scored one batter later as Collier Helton grounded into a fielders choice as the Royals gunned down Price at 2nd for the first out of the inning with the Tigers now leading 2-0.

With only one out in the inning, Helton stole second before Leff Louttit worked a 6 pitch walk that put runners at 1st and 2nd. Colby Boyle moved both runners into scoring position with a nice sacrifice, and was followed by Senior Canon McClure who walked on 4 straight pitches to load the bases.

Cole drew a 4 pitch walk as well, that forced Helton in for the run to make it 3-0 Pigeon Forge before Fisher Monday grounded into the fielders choice on a hotshot that was fielded by the 3rd baseman, who touched the bag to end the inning and the threat.

"It's huge, you know, we're young. After taking a loss in a big game, in a big setting, getting off to a good start meant a lot." said coach Mike Guinn of the early runs to start the game.

The 2nd inning went much the same for Eagleton, as they were retired in order again on a pair of strikeouts and a ground out, to the shortstop Boyle who made a beautiful play accompanied by the stretch by Helton at first to end the Royals 2nd inning.

Pigeon Forge drew a pair of walks with 2 outs in the bottom of the frame but could not scratch anything across after Price was caught in a rundown between 2nd and 3rd base on the pickoff move by Royals pitcher Jayce Simon.

Eagleton would score their lone run in the game in the top of the 3rd inning following the leadoff man Christian Haun reaching base after he was hit by the pitch from Cole. Haun advanced to 2nd on a ground out, and eventually to 3rd on a wild pitch from Cole.

Haun would score one batter later on a single to center field from Lane Cope to plate the Royals run, making it 3-1 Pigeon Forge heading into the bottom of the 3rd inning.

Simon worked around a single in the 3rd from McClure but he was left stranded at 2nd, following a stolen base, after Cole grounded out to the 2nd baseman to end the frame.

The Royals would once again get a man on after, Simon was plunked by the pitch from Cole. The next Royals batter would fly out to Allen in center and the inning ended 3 pitches later after Tigers catcher Brody Watson easily gunned down the Royals runner, trying to steal 3rd to end the inning.

Monday led off the 4th with a single and Watson was intentionally walked to give Pigeon Forge runners at 1st and 2nd but Simon would work out of the jam and leave the Tigers with two men on to end the threat.

Another quick 1,2,3 inning from Cole on a strikeout and pair of ground outs left the Royals with only 6 outs remaining to make something happen.

The Tigers would get another baserunner in their half of the 5th after Boyle walked and advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch. He however, would be doubled off on a hotshot line drive to right field by McClure, after advancing too far down the line towards third.

Eagleton once again would get a runner on base following a single from Cope that would hit Cole directly on the leg, but nothing would come of it as the Tigers would end the inning on a strikeout and a pop fly to 2nd baseman Branson Headrick.

Monday would once again reach base following a double into left field on a hard line drive. He advanced to 3rd, 2 pitches later on a pass ball. Allen, then laid down a sacrifice squeeze bunt, that allowed Monday to slide into home just before the tag was applied to make it 4-1 Pigeon Forge.

"We spent probably 30 minutes today on the pinch squeeze, and it felt really good to see them execute on that." Fisher really showed up big today, 2 big hits, just huge, just really swinging the bat really well for us." said Guinn on the double and bunt to score the final run for Pigeon Forge.

Simon worked around the runner at first and ended the threat with a fly out from Watson and a ground out from Price.

A hit batter, once again gave the Royals a runner on the basepath but nothing would come of it as Cole would strike out the final 2 Eagleton batters to secure the regular season district title for Pigeon Forge and the 4-1 victory.

Cole picked up the win following his 7 inning complete game performance, only allowing 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 9 Eagleton batters.

"That's a guy we've got to have if we're going to move forward, and we believe in him."

Pigeon Forge moves to 22-1 on the year, they will visit Alcoa for a huge non-district game, on Friday with the first pitch being set for 5:30

Dalton Cole delivers a pitch home for Pigeon Forge during their game against Eagleton on Tuesday afternoon.

Fisher Monday eyes the pitch, he would end the day 2 for 3.