Tunstall baseball crushes Martinsville

DRY FORK — Tunstall’s Brett Hylton may or may not be keeping a running tab of how many home runs he has this season compared to his second cousin, Chatham power hitter Gavin Hylton.

His coach is another matter.

“I think Brett’s one up on him after today,” Barry Shelton said.

Hylton hammered a pair of home runs, his fifth and sixth of the season, and Dustin Cockram added another as Tunstall flattened winless Martinsville 18-6 in a five-inning Piedmont District game on Tuesday. The big-hitting Trojans, who have collectively clubbed 16 homers this year, batted around in the third and fourth innings to rebound from an early three-run deficit.

Hylton cleared the right field fence with a booming two-run blast, snapping a 4-4 tie and igniting a nine-run third inning for the Trojans. All but one Tunstall (9-0, 3-0) starter scored in the frame, which was capped by a three-run double by B.J. Harlow.

Tunstall took a 13-6 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning, where it tacked five more runs on the board. Cockram drilled the scoreboard with a three-run homer to provide an 11-run advantage and Hylton followed it up and completed the scoring with a towering solo shot to center field.

“We needed a couple runs to get to the 10-run slaughter rule, and normally in that situation you probably wouldn’t be running,” Shelton said, “but seeing we’ve got three games this week, we wanted to try to play five innings to save some arms a little bit for the week.”

Tyler Freeland lifted a two-run homer and Martinsville’s spirits in the top of the frame as the Bulldogs eased away from the brink of the slaughter rule, but the visitors couldn’t slow the Trojans’ offense in the bottom half of the inning. Martinsville (0-10, 0-2) was retired in order in the top of the fifth.

Cockram and Matt Brumfield smacked three hits apiece to lead Tunstall, with Cockram adding a double to go with his home run. Seven Trojans scored at least twice.

“They hit the long ball today and they gave us the opportunity to make some mistakes and we did,” Martinsville coach Barry Powell said. “It gives us a chance to sit back and evaluate what we’ve got to do in order to compete at this level.”

Tunstall scored three times in the second inning to tie the game at 4-4 before chasing Martinsville starting pitcher Dechane Hairston with one out in the third. The Trojans hung nine runs on the board by that point and continued the onslaught regardless of whom Martinsville trotted out to pitch.

The Bulldogs scored four times in the second inning to take a 4-1 lead, thanks in large part to three consecutive walks issued by Tunstall starter Aaron Van Allen, who was pulled after 1 1-3 innings. Matt Clear showed greater control of his pitches and picked up the victory in relief.

“They got up on us and we just had to fight back because we didn’t want the game to get out of hand,” Hylton said, admitting that once the Trojans got going they wanted to finish the job quickly. “Just keep pounding so they ain’t got no chance of coming back. Got to keep those runs coming.”

If they come on homers, all the better.

Tunstall 18, Martinsville 6, 5 innings
Martinsville 040 20 — 6
Tunstall           139 5X — 18
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