Mustangs Clip Raiders, 4-3, On Chambers' Clutch RBI Hit In 10th

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Winning two regular season games against Cleveland was no picnic for the Walker Valley Mustangs.

Capturing a win-or-go-home District 5-3A tournament showdown with the Blue Raiders was even tougher to nail down for coach Joe Shamblin’s squad.

Bunts by Jacob McCall and Hunter Shamblin set the stage for Jacob Chambers’ walk-off RBI single in the 10^th inning as the Mustangs finally put Cleveland away, 4-3, on a cold Thursday night and advanced to a second-round matchup against East Hamilton.

“This feels great,” Chambers said. “It’s a great victory for us and means a lot since we’ve beat them three times. That guy (Cleveland reliever Harbor Jefferson) is a great pitcher and threw some great pitches. Our guy (Jacob Buckner) was really good, too.”

McCall started the Walker Valley 10^th with a bunt single. He moved to second on a wild pitch by Jefferson, who was simply dazzling in a career-best 15-strikeout performance over the final 6.2 innings.

Shamblin’s sacrifice bunt advanced McCall to third.

Jefferson struck out Rob David for the second out.

Then Chambers drilled a line single to left field off Jefferson, just as he had done in the eighth, for the game-winning hit that sent the fifth-seeded Mustangs into a Friday night contest with fourth-seeded East Hamilton at 7 p.m.

“I think it was the same pitch he threw me in the eighth, only a little higher,” said Chambers, who walked and eventually scored the tying run in the fourth inning.

The Hurricanes beat McMinn County, 9-1, on Wednesday in the opening game of the tournament to reach the second round.

The East Hamilton-Walker Valley winner moves into the best-of-three series stage of the tourney and will face No. 1 Bradley Central on Saturday at 1 p.m. Second-seed Soddy-Daisy plays No. 3 Ooltewah at 4 p.m.

“Our hats are off to Cleveland in this game,” Joe Shamblin said. “It was a shame either one of these teams had lose a game like this. We finally got the big timely hit there at the end. Jacob has been very consistent for us all year long.

“My hats off to McCall for getting that bunt down and to Hunter for the bunt that moved him to third. And (Jacob) Buckner came on (in relief) in the fifth and shut them down.”

Buckner, the third Mustangs pitcher, stymied the Blue Raiders over six scoreless innings. He shut down Cleveland on three hits and struck out nine.

The Blue Raiders got three runners to second base, but Buckner repelled them each time.

“(Jefferson) is a really good pitcher, one of the best I’ve ever faced,” said Buckner, a senior right-hander. “As the game went on I knew I had to stay calm and I wanted to keep throwing as long as I could because I didn’t want this to be my last game.”

The Mustangs notched 5-3 and 8-7 wins over the Blue Raiders during the season, so another hard-fought, nail-biting ballgame probably didn’t surprise any of the fans who braved 48-degree weather to watch the two rivals battle for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

“Any game where you battle for 10 innings is tough when you come out on the wrong side,” Cleveland coach Preston Scoggins said.

The Blue Raiders (13-15) steadily built a 3-0 lead against Mustangs starter Grayson Rountree.

Ezekiel Jeserum laced a two-out single to right in the first inning, moved to second on McCall’s error at short and scored on Kent Christian’s RBI single up the middle.

Chantz Placek, the Cleveland starter who retired the first nine, drove in a third-inning run. In the fourth, Michael May singled and came around when Logan Foley smacked a double to right-center field. Foley was thrown out at third trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

Matthew Pigg came on in relief, gave up a single to Tyler Standridge, but retired the next two to escape any further trouble.

Buckner came on to start the fifth, an inning in which he gave up two walks but struck out three.

Christian reached on a two-out error in the seventh and was awarded second on the overthrow at first. Courtesy runner Alex Green was picked off second to end the inning.

Noah Sills and May each singled in the eighth, but Foley lined out to left and Jacob Weir threw back to second to double up Sills and end that threat.

Standridge was hit by a pitch leading off the ninth and Jake Griffin’s sacrifice bunt moved him to second. Buckner thwarted the threat with back-to-back strikeouts.

Christian again singled to start the Blue Raiders’ 10^th inning, but Sills struck out and Camden Sewell bounced into a double play.

“Our kid literally shut them down, striking out 15 of 24,” Scoggins said. “This thing came down to what our mantra has been all season – we have to stay away from giving the other team one big inning.

“And it showed that sometimes when you do everything right, you can still lose the game.”

In total, Placek and Jefferson combined for 18 strikeouts.

With three runs in and runners at second and third with none out, Jefferson, a smooth-operating right-hander, struck out Walker Valley’s Ben Clark. Jefferson hit Jacob Weir to reload the bases and fanned Buckner and McCall to end the inning.

From the fifth through the ninth, Walker Valley managed to get just two runners to second base. Chambers, a left-handed batter, walked and stole second in the fifth, but Brady Swafford lined out to left to end the inning.

In the ninth, Clark singled and stole second with one out. Jefferson whiffed Weir and Buckner.

“I pretty much just did my job,” Jefferson said. “I shut them down until that last inning. I wanted this game to come down to me. My strikeout pitch was a 12-6 curve. That’s a pitch that drops straight down and I relied on it all night long. It allowed me to get ahead in the count.”

Boxscore

Cleveland                    101 100 000 0 – 3 12 0

Walker Valley             000 300 000 1 – 4 6 1

Placek, Jefferson (4) and Christian; Rountree, Pigg (4), Buckner (5) and Shamblin.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)