A tough week for Longhorn Baseball just got tougher.  After losing on Monday to Three Rivers Conference bottom feeder, Happy Valley, and leaving 13 runners stranded (including 10 in scoring position) against the Unicoi County Blue Devils on Tuesday in a 8-3 defeat, we were shutout and 2 hit by the Sullivan Central Cougars on Thursday.  Jacob Henson, making his first career start had a tough stat line (1/3 of an inning pitched, 9 hits, 8 earned runs), but some plays that should have been made on defense allowed several Cougars runs to cross the plate.  Offensively Judd Hammons, who returned to the line up afte resting a groin injury, and Andy Stout, had the only hits for Johnson County.  A week ago today we stood at 4-4 in the Three Rivers Conference and had a 10-4 overall record, and even though we lost to the Sullivan East Patriots in extra innings, we played well and played hard, and were thinking we can compete with anyone in our conference.  That loss has proved to be tough for our young men to overcome.  Our Monday loss vs. Happy Valley looks just as bad as it did the day of, because the Warriors have been beaten and pounded since leaving Johnson County.  Sawyer Ward pitchd well enough to win on Monday and Sammy Hampton, although his final line looked rough, pitched his best game of the season on Tuesday against Unicoi County.  We have felt all season that we can score enough runs to help our pitching staff out, but it is obvious our best chance to win is when Mark Jennings takes the bump for the Longhorns, and he is battling a sore arm right now or he would have threw on Thursday at Sullivan Central.  Our pitching staff is looking for a big performance out of an arm, and our offense is looking to get the big hit with runners in scoring position.  Our defense, which has been really good all season, has let us down this week, mostly because we are forced to play some young players without a lot of Varsity experience.  The Longhorns host Sullivan Central on Good Friday and we are very much in need of a win.  This has been a tough week!  Sawyer Ward is scheduled to take the ball for the Longhorns.  We are now 10-8 on the season.