GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — The Johnson City Doughboys overpowered the Greeneville Flyboys on their home field in a 13-5 victory Wednesday.
The Doughboys set the tone early in the game as Jose Fernandez unloaded on a hanging slider and crushed a 445-foot home run deep over the right-center-field wall, scoring the newest Doughboy, Landon Smelser, who reached on an infield ground ball.
Johnson City kept up the pace into the second as Willie Hurt lifted his first home run over the wall in right field, scoring Jackson Jones and giving the Doughboys an early 4-0 lead.
The Flyboys cut that lead in half in the home part of the fourth inning. Ezra McNaughton got Greeneville on the board with a towering solo home run into right-center, his ninth of the season, before Jace Patton was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, sending Brock Thompson across home to make the score 4-2.
The Doughboys' bats exploded in the sixth, Brandon Chang lined a single deep to the right-field wall, scoring Trey Majette, who led off the inning with a single. Logan Fyffe continued the rally with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Jones for the second time in the night.
It wouldn’t end there, as Paris Pridgen roped a two-RBI single down the right-field line, seeing Hurt and Chang cross home. Fernandez topped it off with his third RBI on the night, a line drive into left field, scoring Smelser for his second run and giving Johnson City a 9-2 lead.
Greeneville continued to hang in the game, piecing together a few runs in the bottom of the same inning. It started with a Patton sacrifice fly into left field that scored Tyler Inge, before a throwing error by the Doughboys saw Cameron Kim cross home plate as well. McNaughton got his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly himself, bringing Reid Haire home to score and cut the lead to four.
Johnson City padded its lead in the very next inning. Hurt reached base for the third time on an infield error by the Flyboys that saw Camden Kaufman score his only run on the night, which was followed by Fyffe’s seventh double of the summer into left, cashing in runs from Jones and Hurt to make the score 12-5.
Johnson City’s final run of the game came in the top of the final innings when Chang found home on a wild pitch into the backstop by Cristian Bonilla before Lleyton Daily shut down the Flyboys in the bottom of the inning for a final score of 13-5.
The Doughboys will host the Flyboys at 7 p.m. Thursday at TVA Credit Union Ballpark.
