Axmen comeback falls short on Opening Day 

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. - Off the back of winning the Appalachian League Championship for the first time since 1995 just last season, the Kingsport Axmen looked to carry the momentum into the 2023 campaign.

But Opening Night was not kind to the defending champs as the Axmen fell at the hands of the Elizabethton River Riders, 9-7.

This was an offensive game from the jump as the defending champs jumped on the board in the top of the first off the bat of returner Corbin Shaw, who plated another returner, Payton Allen, with an RBI sacrifice fly. That would be the only time in the contest the Axmen (0-1) held the lead.

In the bottom of the first, Elizabethton (1-0) jumped all over Kingsport starter Caleb Anderson of Johnson County Community College, scoring four runs on four hits and capitalizing on two Axmen fielding errors.

Elizabethton plated one run in the second, third and fifth innings to extend their lead to 7-1. The fifth-inning run came off a solo home run over the left field wall by Saint Louis’ Knox Preston (1). Elizabethton's starter, Tennessee RHP Turner Swistak, turned in four innings of just one-run ball, striking out three.

Kingsport scored a pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to cut the deficit to 7-5.

Just as the Axmen seemingly were fighting back into the game, home runs from Memphis’ Kerry Herndon-Brown (1) and Saint Louis’ Hayden Moore (1) in the seventh and eighth innings gave the River Riders a comfortable margin in the late innings.

A two-run homerun for Walters State’s Deniel Ortiz (1) and a one-out single for Ole Miss’ Seth Farni gave Kingsport life in the top of the ninth, but John Harrick of Johnson County Community College closed things down for the River Riders, striking out the final two batters to end the game.

Anderson (0-1) was saddled with the loss and San Francisco’s Gabriel Barrett (1-0) was scored with the win. Herndon-Brown finished just a triple shy of the cycle for the River Riders.

As part of a home-and-home series, the series shifts back to Kingsport tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.