JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The Doughboys celebrated the Fourth of July with a record crowd of 5,261 and a 6-4 win over the Kingsport Axmen.
The crowd, beating the previous record set on opening day by over 1,000 fans, got to see the Doughboys take an early lead, as Caleb Marmo would drive in Logan Sutter for the first run of the day.
Doughboys’ starter Justin Guliano would deal on Tuesday, retiring the first six he faced, then working out of a jam in the third. Guliano, who has now started in each of the top two attended games in TVA Credit Union Ballpark knew this was a game the team, and the city needed to have.
“Coming off a pair of losses, we needed this win, Guiliano said. "These fans didn’t come out to see us lose a game and I was going to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Guliano worked into the fifth inning, getting out of a pair of jams with runners on second and third.
The fifth inning would reawaken the Doughboys’ bats. A Cody Miller sacrifice fly and an error would bring in a pair of runs, pushing the Johnson City lead to three.
Guliano would record the first out of the sixth, before his day would be done, finishing with 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball, with eight strikeouts and just two hits.
The sixth would bring trouble for the Doughboys, with a pair of hits bringing across the first Kingsport run of the day. However, Kingsport’s bats would continue in the seventh, as they’d take advantage of wild pitches to score a pair and tie up the game.
Amman Dewberry wouldn’t let the tie last when he launched his fourth home run of the summer 420 feet to left center on the second pitch of the seventh, giving Johnson City the lead back.
Ty Cobb would work a scoreless eighth for the Doughboys, giving Johnson City an opportunity to add on in the bottom half. The Doughboys would load the bases with just one out, leading to Danny Infante bringing home a run on a fielder’s choice. Cam King followed shortly with an RBI hit-by-pitch to give the Doughboys their second three-run lead of the game..
Cobb returned to the mound to complete six-out save in the ninth. Kingsport gave Cobb and the Doughboys a scare as they scored a run. However, Cobb got the final two hitters to pop out to close the game.
The 17th win for the Doughboys, puts them back to 10 games above .500 going into the off-day Wednesday.
The crowd, the largest in the Appalachian League since at least 2005 and the largest in Johnson City history, beat out the crowd of 4,254 on Opening Day this season.
The Doughboys will be off Wednesday before hosting Elizabethton on Thursday.
