The Burlington Sock Puppets looked good for one inning, but the Greeneville Flyboys looked excellent for the other six, winning 17-4 in a game shortened to seven innings on Wednesday at Pioneer Park.
Greeneville manager Jack Wilson simply summarized his team’s performance with, “They did a great job.”
An understatement, to be sure. Greeneville cranked out an Appalachian League season-high 24 hits. Every Flyboy in the lineup had at least one and seven had at least two.
Greeneville’s 17 runs tied its season-high, matching a 17-6 win at Pulaski on June 21.
“They were focused on finishing the summer strong and we had the two days off and that was a nice break for them,” Wilson said. “We had a meeting today talking about the importance of playing playoff baseball. This is very similar to coming into a conference tournament or trying to win a conference championship and no one’s ever guaranteed to get to this point.
“It’s a different type of baseball, playoff baseball. We talked to them about the importance of each at bat, moving guys over, getting bunts down, hits and runs, things we saw today. They did a great job and its a good start to the week.”
It was death by a thousand singles, or more accurately 21, as all but three of Greeneville’s hits were one base. The Flyboys chipped away at the Burlington defense all game, finding holes everywhere. Mycah Jordan had two doubles while Nicklas Williams had one.
“Just a good approach by the guys,” Wilson said on his team’s success at the plate. “We had some things fall our way. We had some balls off the end of the bat that fell. Whether they’re singles or doubles, we’ll take all of them.”
Unbothered by the rain, Greeneville opened the first three innings with seven hits and two runs while depriving Burlington of any of either.
Jordan pushed the Flyboys’ first run across on an RBI single in the second and BJ Peart made it 2-0 in the third inning on a hard grounder to third, beating the throw and taking second on an error.
The rain let up in the fourth and Burlington finally got its first hit. After a strikeout to start the inning, the next batter reached on an infield error and the third worked a walk. Brian Heckelman cracked the Sock Puppets’ first hit, a single to left field, to load the bases. A sacrifice fly from Joseph DeLanzo made it 2-1 and Trey Tiffan put Burlington ahead 3-2 with a two-run single.
Greeneville retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Jordan and Tyler Inge singled to left field, and Brady Francisco tied it 3-3 with a sacrifice fly before Nicklas Williams pushed the Flyboys ahead 4-3 with a single to right field.
Williams stole second and third and scored on a line drive up the middle by Nick Arias to make it 5-3. Brodie Johnston made it 6-3 with a hard grounder that got underneath the shortstop.
“All year, we’ve been coming back,” Jordan said of the feeling in the dugout after giving up the lead early. “We’ve never been the team to give up. We’ll come back, fight it out and put some more runs on the board. We’re always fighting back and we’ll never give up.
“Once we get hits, it starts to roll. And when it starts to roll, we put up runs and we put up hits. And everything after that just keeps rolling. We got hot for sure.”
Greeneville added four runs in the bottom of the fifth. After Jordan kicked things off with a double, Inge brought him home while reaching first on an error. Williams and Johnston each had RBI singles to make it 9-3, and Peart beat the throw on a two-out infield grounder, which made it 10-3.
Burlington pushed a run across in the top of the sixth to make it 10-4.
The rain came back in the bottom of the sixth, but the Flyboys’ offense continued to hit single after single and drive in run after run.
After scoring four runs in each of the last two innings, the Flyboys one-upped themselves with five in the sixth. Francisco drove in two with a single and Williams scored on a wild pitch to make it 13-4. Arias and Peart also hit RBI singles to put the Flyboys ahead 15-4.
Greeneville scored two more runs on bases-loaded walks with no outs in the bottom of the seventh before the game was called.
Jordan finished 5-for-5 with an RBI.
“For the past few games, I’ve been trying to do too much,” he said. “Now I just smooth the game out, see the ball and try to get a hit.”
Williams and Peart each went 4-for-5 with Williams having three RBI and Peart having two. Rintaro Sasaki was 3-for-5 with an RBI, and Johnston, Francisco and Arias each had two hits. Inge and Avery Collins had one.
Greeneville starter Jacob Kennedy (4-1) pitched five innings for the win. He gave up two hits, three runs, walked five and struck out four.
“Jacob did a good job,” Wilson said. “He didn’t have his best stuff today, but he fought through it. He fought through some walks and we had some tough hops to third base. But for the most part, we had solid defense. Nick (Williams) had some great catches in center field and that’s been our forte all year. Pitchers throwing in the strike zone and we make plays.”
Hunter Sloop and Tyler Jackson each pitched one inning of relief. Sloop gave up two hits, one run, walked one and struck out one, and Jackson gave up one hit, walked two and struck out one.
Greeneville (25-15) is atop the Appalachian League West Division standings, 4 1/2 games ahead of second place Johnson City.
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