The Signal Mountain Eagles have won some big baseball games in recent weeks, but they couldn’t pull the trigger on Friday night in the biggest and most important game of the season.
Facing former district foe Grundy County in the sectional round of the Class AA playoffs, the Eagles answered the challenge the first time, but not the second and came out on the short end of a 5-3 final.
Signal Mountain ends its season at 21-15 while the Yellow Jackets will take their 23-9 record to Murfreesboro for next week’s state tournament.
There was very little offense on either side for the first four innings, but things changed in the fifth.
Cason King led off for Grundy with a bloop single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Evan Jaynes. King scored the first run when Signal Mountain pitcher Sam Witherspoon fielded a grounder from winning pitcher Blane Harris and threw it away at third.
Jaden Ruehling followed with a single to plate Harris. Kenzie Hill then drove in the third run with a groundout to short and the difference was 3-0 in the middle of five.
The Eagles came right back with three runs in their half of the inning.
Collins Poole reached on an error and scored on a single by Scott Payne. Landon Edwards followed with an RBI-double to plate Payne while Edwards scored on a sacrifice fly by Collin Farr.
Grundy then scored what turned out to be the winning runs in the top of the sixth.
Jacob Thomas got hit by a pitch before Jaynes singled with two outs. A single by Harris drove in Thomas with the winning run while Jaynes scored when Noah Bean got walked with the bases loaded.
Poole and Brennon Weigert both singled with two outs in the sixth for the Eagles, but Harris got Witherspoon on a swinging third strike to end that threat.
Apparently, the Yellow Jackets weren’t willing to settle for a two-run lead as Trey Hampton and Alex Killian led off with singles and both advanced on a wild pitch.
Thomas dropped a nice bunt on a squeeze play, but Signal Mountain pitcher Drew Lowry made the perfect relay to catcher Carter Cannon and Hampton turned into the first out.
With runners on second and third with one out, Killian tried to score from third on a wild pitch, but was out on another perfect relay from Cannon to Lowry. Seconds later, Thomas was tagged out as well for the most unusual double play to end the inning.
Edwards reached on a Grundy error with one out in the seventh and Collin Farr walked with two outs to put two runners on, but Harris got Daulton Cunningham on a pop to short that Bean made a great over-the-shoulder catch going away from the plate in left to end the game.
“This is a huge win for us,” Harris said after the game had ended.
“We’ve gone through some tough times in recent months and this is something positive that the community really needed. We just laid it on the line and I tried to do what I had to do. And I had a great defense that made outstanding plays behind me,” the 18-year-old senior added after improving to 8-1 for the season.
Grundy County coach Chase Jones had plenty of praise for his slender southpaw.
“He had command of his curve and his change was working well, but Blane is a true competitor and he has the heart of a lion. He’s a skinny kid who really doesn’t look that impressive, but he can pitch and he did a great job today,” the coach said before getting doused by a cooler of ice water.
“Now we have a shot at a state title. We had to get there first, but we’re one of eight teams remaining. If ever there’s been a great group of kids I’ve coached who deserved to go, this is that group.
“But I’m really proud of these guys for the way they battled today. We just had to keep playing and stay focused on one pitch at a time,” he added.
Signal Mountain coach Josh Gandy had plenty of praise for the winning Yellow Jackets.
“I hate losing more than anybody, but I’m happy for those guys as they came out and executed when they needed to. Hat’s off to them for a great performance today,” Gandy began.
“I’m proud of how we battled. Grundy did a great job executing the small ball and their pitcher was really good. I’ve watched him for the past four years and he’s gotten better every year.
“This is a tough loss for us, but we have absolutely nothing to hang our heads about. We lost eight starters from last year’s team and nobody really gave us a chance to get to this point, but we can build from games like this,” the coach concluded.
The Yellow Jackets finished the day with five runs on nine hits.
Ruehling and Hampton both had two each while five others had one apiece.
The Eagles finished with three runs on seven hits.
Payne and Edwards each had two.
GRUNDY COUNTY 000 032 0 – 5 9 3
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 000 030 0 – 3 7 1
Harris and Hill; Witherspoon, Guagenti (5), Lowry (6) and Cannon.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)