MORRISTOWN-The Cocke County Fighting Cocks opened their season with a little bit of pitching and a little bit of defense.

The offense, however, was another story for Cocke County.

A trio of Morristown West pitchers combined to one-hit Cocke County on Tuesday night at Trojan Park, as the Trojans took the season opener for both teams 7-0.

The Fighting Cocks surrendered four unearned runs in the fourth inning, but were all allowed to score after a close call with two outs went against Cocke County.

CCHS head coach David Crawford was pleased with his team's effort, despite the end result.

"Take away a couple errors and a somewhat contestable call at second base and we played well, battled and competed," Crawford said. "We played really good defense and pitched well.

"Our pitching and defense was right where we needed it to be tonight," CCHS assistant coach Andy Chrisman said. "But we've got to score to win and we're going to have to get back to work to be more successful at the plate."

While the Fighting Cocks (0-1, 0-1) did only receive one hit off the bat of junior Jarrett Ramsey, they were able to get five base runners via walks and errors, but were unable to take advantage of the situations.

CCHS, who trailed 1-0, had a chance to take the lead in the third inning after an error on a Logan Suggs fly ball to right field put runners at second and third with two outs in the inning. However a strikeout ended the inning and the best scoring chance the Fighting Cocks had in the game.

"We stranded too many runners," Crawford said. "We've got to learn to hit in timely situations."

Morristown West then posted four unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning and tacked on two more in the fifth of Devon Yankee.

The bottom half of the fourth saw a one-out error give the Trojans a base runner, then after a single, a fly ball to deep left field recorded the second out and the throw to gun down the runner tagging to second resulted in a close call that went in favor of West to extend the inning.

Morristown West (1-0, 1-0) took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning after a leadoff walk and a bloop single by Andrew Lee.

The leadoff walk was the only free pass issued by senior starting pitcher Drew Crawford (0-1) in four-plus innings of work. Crawford allowed seven hits, two earned runs and struck out two in his four innings.

The one run in the home half of the first was enough run support for all three Trojan hurlers, who combined for a one-hit, 11-strikeout performance in the game.

Senior lefty Richard Cook (1-0) set the tone for the West High pitching staff, striking out four of the first six men he faced in three innings of work. Jett Pressey and Lee combined for five strikeouts and only issued one walk over the final four innings.

"Our pitchers did a really good job filling the zone up with strikes and challenging their hitters when we needed too," Morristown West coach Chuck Stansberry said. "Richard came out and set the tone early on and struck out three of the first four batters. He did what a senior is supposed to do, set the tone for everyone else. Jett came in and kept throwing strikes and Andrew did a great job finishing it."

Cocke County returns to action tonight in the first game of a tournament in Sevier County. The Fighting Cocks face Pigeon Forge at Pigeon Forge High School at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, followed by a match-up with Knox Central at 5 p.m. on Friday at Seymour High School.