JOHNSON CITY, TN: Giving up eight runs along the first three innings proved to be too much for the Doughboys as they fall 11-5 to Elizabethton Friday night.
The game got off on the wrong foot right away as Elizabethton’s Owen Carapellotti blasted a two-run homer to right field off Doughboys’ starter Nathan Hickman. Johnson City averted from any other trouble, leaving an Elizabethton runner stranded on third base to close out the first.
For the first two games the Doughboys have been very good at answering when their pitching staff gives up a run, and they did just that with a Donovan Hill sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the first, but that one-run deficit was the closest they’d get.
The second inning saw the River Riders send 10 hitters to the plate, scoring five runs. The inning was headlined by yet another Owen Carapellotti home run, this time to left-center field. The five runs came off seven hits in the inning, the same number of hits the Doughboys had all game.
Following yet another Elizabethton run in the third, making it eight runs in their first three innings, the doughboys started to pull back.
The Doughboys got a run in the third, a pair in the fourth and another in the fifth off a big double by Eastern Michigan’s Logan Hugo. That double was his second of the season, recording one in each of the first two ballgames.
The double would bring Johnson City within three after four unanswered, but that would be it as far as offensive success goes for the Doughboys.
With a little bit of momentum in the sails, the 2,008 fans in Johnson City on fireworks night started to bring some energy, but the ballclub wouldn’t be able to help continue that as the Doughboys failed to have a runner in scoring position following the fifth.
Defense was shining bright for Elizabethton in the two games in Johnson City as Jayden Melendez hit a line shot into deep left-center field but Elizabethton’s Austin Roccaforte ran it down in the gap and turned a guaranteed single into a double play, really showing how the whole game went for the Doughboys
That wasn’t the last time we’d hear from Roccaforte as he played longball as well in the seventh, hitting a two-run homer, effectively ending the game.
The Doughboys fall to 0-2 on the season following the loss. Tomorrow is Star Wars night at TVA Credit Union Ballpark as the Doughboys welcome in the Pulaski River Turtles, first pitch is set for 7 p.m.
