BY ANTHONY STEVENS

SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

LEBANON — You don’t have to look far to find the spoiler in the Clinch Mountain District. After helping Lebanon by upsetting John Battle earlier this season, Gate City also gave Battle a helping hand by defeating Lebanon 3-0 at Pioneer Park Tuesday

"We had a great pitching performance, some timely hits, and good defense," Gate City coach Shannon Carter said. "That will win you baseball games."

The Blue Devils received a dominating performance by pitcher Luke Kirk, who was the first pitcher to shutout Lebanon this year. Kirk, a sophomore, kept Lebanon off-stride at the plate the entire game. He used two pitches, and mixed a fastball with an effective curve.

"We knew this was a big game coming in," Kirk said. "My defense did a great job of backing me up. This is the best my arm has felt the entire year. My curve was working and I had good velocity on my fastball. Location is the key for me."

Kirk struck out 11 and only walked two to get the complete-game win. The Pioneers had two hits in the third and two hits in the fourth inning, but that was the extent of their offense. Kirk didn’t allow a hit after the fourth inning and seemed to get stronger as the game went along, retiring the final 10 batters he faced.

"Kirk just had a great outing," Carter said. "He knows what is expected of him. He’s a bulldog on the mound; a hard-nosed kid, and he stepped up big tonight."

Lebanon’s Brett Taylor also pitched well. Although Gate City (7-7, 3-3) had 10 hits, there wasn’t a hard hit ball in the game. The Blue Devils’ first run came when Wes Hughes singled to right. Dusty Clark followed with a bunt single and Terrence Harvey walked to load the bases. With two outs, Trey Clark then received a walk to give Gate City a 1-0 advantage.

The Blue Devils added a run in the third inning on a two-out hit by Dusty Clark. Dustin Jones then added an insurance run for the Devils in the seventh.

It was atough loss for Lebanon (10-5, 3-2), who has now dropped three in a row and was knocked out of a first place tie in the CMD. The Pioneers travel to John Battle Friday in another critical game.

"We haven’t hit well in three games," Lebanon coach Doc Adams said. "I’ve seen one man go in a slump [before] but the whole team has [gone] in a slump. We just didn’t put it in play.

"We’ll just have to hit the ball on Friday. You just have to put games like this behind you and forget about them. It’s hard to get ready to play after a tough loss like this, but it’s my job to get them ready to play."

Gate City travels to Lee High Friday.

Gate City 011 000 1–3 10 1

Lebanon 000 000 0–0 4 1

Kirk and S. Clark. Taylor and Castle. W—Kirk (2-1). L—Taylor (3-1). HR—none.