Coach Michael Long has his sights set on a third consecutive state tournament appearance as his George Kell Motors team winds through the remainder of the regular season. However there is work to be done by Kell Motors.
With an eye on the closure of the regular season and this weekend’s Zone 2 Tournament, Long is trying to keep everyone healthy, fresh and available for the postseason while trying to build momentum heading into it.
“We haven’t played one game this season with the lineup that we thought we were going to have coming into the season,” Long noted.
“We have added and subtracted to the roster trying to put together a team that can be competitive at the district and now we feel like we are getting to that point.”
His faith was buoyed when his Kell Motors team traveled to Armorel last Thursday.
Despite playing without two potential starters, Kell Motors gave themselves an opportunity to win as they dropped a 5-2 decision.
Newport relied on the right arm of Chase Gates who suffered the loss despite allowing only one earned run on four hits and struck out 12 while walking three.
“Chase threw the ball real well,” said Long, “we had one inning where we made four errors and just could not get him back in the dugout.”
The four-run third inning for Armorel erased a 2-0 Newport lead Gates helped provide as he scored on a two-out hit by Zach Shipman after drawing a lead-off walk.
Kell Motors added a run in the second inning when Drake Cullum singled and later scored on an RBI hit by Austin Ivy.
Armorel added an insurance run in the fifth inning for the final margin.
Shipman, John Robinson, Cullum and Ivy had the lone hits for Kell Motors who will travel to Pocahontas today for their final regular season contest.
They will open play in the Zone 2 Tournament Saturday, July 17 at 7 p.m. as they host the one-seed, Harrison.
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Coach Michael Long has his sights set on a third consecutive state tournament appearance as his George Kell Motors team winds through the remainder of the regular season. However there is work to be done by Kell Motors.
With an eye on the closure of the regular season and this weekend’s Zone 2 Tournament, Long is trying to keep everyone healthy, fresh and available for the postseason while trying to build momentum heading into it.
“We haven’t played one game this season with the lineup that we thought we were going to have coming into the season,” Long noted.
“We have added and subtracted to the roster trying to put together a team that can be competitive at the district and now we feel like we are getting to that point.”
His faith was buoyed when his Kell Motors team traveled to Armorel last Thursday.
Despite playing without two potential starters, Kell Motors gave themselves an opportunity to win as they dropped a 5-2 decision.
Newport relied on the right arm of Chase Gates who suffered the loss despite allowing only one earned run on four hits and struck out 12 while walking three.
“Chase threw the ball real well,” said Long, “we had one inning where we made four errors and just could not get him back in the dugout.”
The four-run third inning for Armorel erased a 2-0 Newport lead Gates helped provide as he scored on a two-out hit by Zach Shipman after drawing a lead-off walk.
Kell Motors added a run in the second inning when Drake Cullum singled and later scored on an RBI hit by Austin Ivy.
Armorel added an insurance run in the fifth inning for the final margin.
Shipman, John Robinson, Cullum and Ivy had the lone hits for Kell Motors who will travel to Pocahontas today for their final regular season contest.
They will open play in the Zone 2 Tournament Saturday, July 17 at 7 p.m. as they host the one-seed, Harrison.
