Flip Watson Field- The Swain County Maroon Devils got the best of the Murphy Bulldogs last night, as they took advantage of five Bulldog errors on their way to an 8-4 victory.

Gabe Lillard was on the mound for the Maroon Devils and he showed off his best stuff, striking out 7 Murphy batters through 6 innings and only allowing 1 run on 9 hits. Ronnie Griggs came on in relief of Lillard and slammed the door on the Bulldogs, as he pitched a near-perfect bottom of the seventh to end the game.

Lillard helped himself out at the plate, going 2-3 with 3 RBIs and a Triple. Aiden Southards also had multiple hits on the evening as the Sophomore went 2-4 with the bat in his hands.

Even though the Southpaw didn’t allow a single earned run, Cole Laney took the loss for the Bulldogs. He allowed just 2 hits through five innings and struck out 7 Swain County batters. Four unearned runs came across the plate thanks to 5 Bulldog errors.

The Maroon Devils win didn’t just improve their standing in the SMC, they also helped out the boys from Clay County as Hayesville took sole possession of first place in the conference thanks to the Bulldogs loss.

As far as the Maroon Devils and Bulldogs are concerned, however, Thursday’s rematch will have a lot on the line. The winner of Thursday’s game two will move into second place in the Smoky Mountain Conference Standings, with the Bulldogs having a possibility of moving into a tie for first depending on how the Robbinsville-Hayesville series goes. (Swain lost both games vs Hayesville, therefore Hayesville owns the tiebreaker no matter what.)

If Murphy defeats Swain on Thursday and Robbinsville takes one of their two games vs Hayesville, then the Dogs and Jackets will be tied for first.