Steventon, Cady Lead McCallie To 1-0 Division II-AA State Baseball Win

Blue Tornado Clip Eagles, Move Step Closer To Second Title In Three Years

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Larry Fleming

LEBANON, Tenn. – Rested and ready, McCallie junior Palmer Steventon pitched like the game’s outcome depended on his strong left arm.

It did.

Steventon, who nursed a slight shoulder problem through an idle final weekend to the regular season, fired a five-hit shutout, teammate Ethan Cady produced the only run with a fifth inning RBI double and the Blue Tornado posted a 1-0 semifinal victory over  Brentwood Academy on Tuesday in the TSSAA Division II-AA state baseball tournament at Wilson Central High School.

“I was mentally sharp,” Steventon said. “That was never a problem for me and I’ve never had a terrible outing when things were really off. But my curve was pretty bad today.

“The mound was steeper than I’m used to and my curve was going in the dirt all day long. I just couldn’t get that pitch up in the strike zone as often as I wanted.”

He was still effecting, going the distance and striking out three and walking just two.

“We were only down 1-0,” Eagles coach Buddy Alexander said. “We played those guys 29 innings within 24-hour period and this felt like an extension of that series. We had five opportunities to score in seven innings today and didn’t get it done.”

In that regular-season series, McCallie lost the opener 2-0 and then swept a doubleheader the next day 4-2 and 3-2.

McCallie (31-5), the 2014 state champion but a program that left the mid-state thoroughly disappointed with last year’s state effort, advanced to the winner’s bracket final on Wednesday at 12:30 Central.

The Blue Tornado, making its ninth state appearance with two titles back home in the private school’s trophy case, will play perennial title contender Memphis Christian Brothers, which knocked off Pope John Paul II, 4-1, in the second game on Tuesday.

“This was a great win for us,” said Eady, who had grounded out twice prior to perfectly placing his laser-shot double into the gap for what proved to be the game-winning hit. We built some momentum going into (Wednesday).”

Brentwood Academy (25-12) fell into the loser’s bracket and takes on PJP at 10 a.m.

Wednesday’s winners play for the state title on Thursday at 12:30 Central time at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. An “if necessary” game would be played later in the day.

Christian Brothers in competing in is 28th state tournament and has captured 12 previous titles, state titles, more than any other school. The Purple Wave won the title last year.

“We won our first game last year,” McCallie coach Greg Payne said, “but we have to redeem ourselves for what happened after that, especially losing that game

Steventon (6-1) was held out of the final regular season series against PJP to rest his arm for the state tournament. Even without the smooth-throwing lefty the Blue Tornado took two of three from the Knights and then swept St. Benedict 4-3 and 11-1 to roll into the state tourney having won eight of nine games.

Steventon’s lone loss was a 6-2 setback against Hardin Valley in the Scott Dean Memorial Tournament in mid-April.

Despite his curveball woes, Steventon kept the Eagles at bay when it mattered most by squashing threat after threat with a gutty performance.

“I wasn’t frustrated about it,” he said. “I just went with the flow and tried to adjust as soon as possible.”

In the second, the Eagles Woodlee singled and eventually moved to third. Steventon fanned Hayden Stover to thwart that nail-biter.

Victory opened the fourth with a single, but Warren Preston bounced into a double play. It was a good thing because Woodlee followed with a double and James Rosen walked. Again Steventon ended the inning with a strikeout, this time victimizing Garrett Smith.

With runners at first and second with two out in the sixth, Steventon got Smith again swinging at the breeze.

An inning later, with everything on the line, Steventon got two quick outs only to give up a single to Even Beddoe and a walk to Easton Cline. Victory grounded to third and Griff Jayne snagged the ball and stepped on third to end the game.

“Palmer has done this all year long,” Payne said. “When he’s healthy we think he’s the best pitcher in Chattanooga. He can throw any of his pitches with confidence. Today was more about guts than anything. He’s had a little shoulder issue, but he’s fine. We just felt more rest would be good for him.”

The Blue Tornado finally broke through against Victory in the fifth inning.

Victory, a freshman right-hander, struck out Jackson Mathis, but walked Corbin Brooksbank. Max Riemer’s grounder forced Brooksbank at second. Cady then delivered a rocket to the gap in left-center and Jyles Romer, running for Riemer at first, sprinted around to score easily with the game-winner.

“Ethan has great power and he’s a great gap-hitter,” Payne said. “I decided to put Romer in as a pinch-runner because he’s got speed and could score if Ethan got one in the gap. It worked out for us.”

Said Cady of his game-winner, “We really needed that run and I knew (Palmer) could shut the door on Brentwood after that. We’re on a pretty good roll right now and we feel good about going into Wednesday’s game that we can keep it going.”

Boxscore

Brentwood Academy                    000 000 0 – 0 5 0

McCallie                                          000 010 x – 1 4 0

Victory, Swafford (6) and Reynolds; Steventon and Smith.

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

 

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