The William Byrd baseball team was in Tennessee last weekend to play two games in Kingsport and the Terriers returned with a split. Byrd beat Morristown Hamblen East on Friday, 7-6, then lost to Tennessee High of Bristol on Saturday, 10-5.
The games were played at Hunter Wright Stadium, home of the Kingsport Mets, and Byrd’s James Purcell is making a case that the Mets might like to keep him. James was three-for-three Friday and walked twice Saturday as his batting average after eight games is now .538.
Purcell drove in three runs against Hamblen East, including the game winning RBI. Byrd trailed 6-5 in the bottom of the fourth when Ethan Hairston reached on an error and Ross Divers walked. Hunter Sipe’s sacrifice bunt moved them over and Purcell followed with a hit to drive both in and give Byrd a 7-6 lead that would hold up.
James, who usually catches, also started on the mound for Byrd and pitched the first two innings. James Glover came on in the third and pitched the last five innings to pick up the win. Matthew Scavelli had two hits for Byrd.
On Saturday against Tennessee High Byrd took an early 4-2 lead but the home team rallied for seven runs in the fifth. Trenton Sayers started and pitched into the fifth inning before he was relieved by Israel Hairston. Divers and Scavelli had two hits each for Byrd.
The split gave Byrd a 6-2 overall record and the Terriers were scheduled to host Bassett on Wednesday, but results were too late for publication. On Friday Byrd will host Northside in a key Blue Ridge District game and on Saturday Hidden Valley is here for a makeup jayvee-varsity doubleheader, with the jayvees scheduled for noon and the varsity at 3 pm.
The Terriers have played just two district games and are 1-1, losing to Franklin County and beating Lord Botetourt. Northside and Franklin were both 2-0 in the BRD coming into the week.