The Johnson City Doughboys and Kingsport Axmen were tied 4-4 at the end of the ninth inning, but Johnson City came out on top in a sudden death tiebreaker.
The game was scoreless through the first three innings.
Kingsport (9-3) scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth on a Sam Petersen RBI single that scored Ian Riley. Johnson City (3-9) failed to score in the top of the fifth inning.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Axmen added three more runs to take a 4-0 lead. Mayes White, who went 3-for-3 tonight, doubled home Henry Hunter, Riley singled home White and Nate Anderson scored on a Houston Koon RBI single.
Johnson City scored one run in the sixth inning, two in the seventh and one in the eighth and the game was tied at 4-4 after nine innings of baseball.
Before each Appalachian League game begins, the home team decides whether they want to play offense or defense in the half-inning tie-breaker, in case the game is tied after nine innings. In this case, Kingsport elected to play offense in the tie-breaker before the game began.
If the hitting team scores a run, they win, but if the defensive team records three outs in a scoreless half-inning, the offensive team loses. The hitting team starts with an initial placement runner on first base with no outs.
Kingsport’s initial placement runner on first base was White and he never moved, as the Axmen went down in order, so the game ended in a Doughboys tie-breaker victory.
Tomorrow night, the Axmen visit the Bristol State Liners, to begin a two-game series at the Tennessee-Virginia border.
