Bellevue bounces Marshall County from Southeast Regional

On Friday morning, Marshall County was knocked out of the 11-year old Cal Ripken Southeast Regional tournament when they were defeated 15-4 in four innings by East Tennessee state champ Bellevue in the first round of the loser's bracket at the Richard Cashion Sports Complex in Lewisburg.

Aided by a 10-run first inning, Bellevue finished with 16 hits and four walks against two Marshall County pitchers while belting three homeruns.

Starting pitcher Jack Trew paced Bellevue at the plate by going 3-for-3 with a stolen base and two runs scored. Jack Elliot (2 RBI), Nick Nelson (2 RBI), Jonathan Conricade (1 RBI), Xavier Shepherd, and Ben Simpson (2 RBI) tallied two hits apiece for Bellevue as well with Elliot, Nelson, and Conricade each clubbing a homerun.

Marshall County, conversely, mustered just one hit and three walks against Trew and two Bellevue relief pitchers. Gauge Anderson singled in the fourth inning to account for Marshall County's lone hit of the game, while Caleb Crowell (1 RBI), Grayson Whaley, and Raymond Cooksey all drew one walk.

Similar to their previous game against South Florida, Marshall County fell into a huge hole early on, as Bellevue crossed home plate 10 times in the top of the first inning with the help of a solo homer by Conricade and a pair of two-run bombs from Elliot and Nelson to forge a 10-0 lead.

"The first inning surprised me. I had seen them at the State tournament and I knew they had a few good hitters, but it did surprise me how well they hit the ball early on," said Marshall County coach Joey Crowell. "Regardless, I'm proud with how the kids continued to fight after we fell behind. Even though we lost both games here, we still had a good season."

In the bottom of the first, Marshall County trimmed the deficit to 10-1 when Mitchell Ford raced home on a RBI groundout by Caleb Crowell after reaching base on an error, stealing second, and advancing to third on a Camryn Ruiz sacrifice bunt.

Bellevue then tallied three runs in the top of the second to open up a 13-1 advantage before tacking on two more runs in the third inning to make it 15-1.

Marshall County notched three runs in the bottom of the third with the help of a three walks, an error, a Blake Diestelow RBI sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch, and three stolen bases by Ford to narrow the gap to 15-4, but Bellevue held MC scoreless in the fourth inning to keep the mercy rule in effect.