Ward, Emery Lead Lions To 10-4 Championship Win
by John Hunt
posted May 15, 2008
The Red Bank Lions are playing their best baseball of the season at the right time.
Facing District 5-AAA champion Bradley in the Region 3-AAA final at Red Bank Wednesday night, the Lions made a very good Bradley team appear average at best with an impressive 10-4 victory.
Cullen Clabo and Brandon Ward combined on a three-hitter as Red Bank extended its winning streak to five games while snapping Bradley’s win streak at nine.
Red Bank will be at home again on Friday, hosting Lincoln County in a Sub-State game while Bradley will be on the road in Murfreesboro to face Oakland.
Scattered showers had fallen most of the afternoon and there was some doubt if the game would even be played. When the teams took the field, the Lions were ready as they won one of their most important games of the season with an all-around outstanding effort.
Bradley’s Jon Clinard reached on an error to start the game and Timmy Lynn earned a two-out walk, but Clabo got his first strikeout to end the inning.
The Lions quickly gained the advantage with four runs in their half of the first.
Craig Barker slapped a one-out single to left before Hunter Adkins reached with a walk.
Corey Emery, who’s been swinging as hot a bat as anyone in the Red Bank lineup, followed with a three-run homer down the line in left.
That was the big guy's only hit, but he reached base all four times he batted and he scored three runs.
Jake Ledbetter and Brandon Ward both singled before Clabo’s sacrifice fly to right scored Ledbetter with the fourth run.
Bradley sent eight batters to the plate in the third and they scored two runs in the process.
Ward replaced Clabo with the bases loaded and one out and promptly struck out the next two hitters to stop the Bear rally before it got off the ground as the Red Bank fans went crazy.
That may have been the turning point in the game.
The Lions got those two runs back plus one in their half of the third.
Emery walked and Ledbetter got hit by a pitch before Ward singled to load the bases.
Emery scored on a double-play grounder while Jeremy Bales and Kacy Bembry both had run-scoring singles.
Bradley added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings while Red Bank countered with one in the fourth and two in the fifth.
Ward pitched the final four and two-thirds innings for Red Bank and finished with 11 strikeouts and just one hit allowed.
He also issued five walks, but when big pitches had to be made and important outs had to be recorded, Ward came through like a champ.
“I felt great as the adrenalin was flowing,” the senior southpaw said as the rain began to fall just a little harder after he helped his teammates cover the infield with their giant tarp.
“We really wanted it tonight as Bradley is the team that ended our season right hear last year in the Region semis.
"We felt like we had a shot to win tonight as we've been playing well in recent games. I know how well they can hit, so I just had to hit my spots. My breaking ball kept them off-balance as well.
“I thought last week’s win over Soddy Daisy (in the district finals) was my biggest game of the year, but this one tops that,” he added.
The entire Red Bank following was excited when the game ended, but nobody was any happier than coach Bumper Reese.
“I’m so excited I’m almost numb right now. We’ve advanced to the sub-state twice since I’ve been here, but I think this is the first time we’ve been Region champions since 1990,” he expressed.
“We hit a lull toward the end of the season where we lost four or five straight games and we decided to take a different approach at the plate.
"I must give these guys a lot of credit because they did what we asked and they bought into our philosophy. We’ve been scoring a bunch of runs ever since.
“I can’t say enough about Brandon Ward. He’s such an intense competitor. His last two outings have both been in championship games.
"He was so pumped tonight, I thought he was going to hyperventilate. I got his attention at the start of the seventh and just told him to relax and throw strikes. That’s what he did,” Reese added.
Bradley’s first-year coach Travis Adams certainly didn’t expect such a lackluster performance from his team in such an important game.
“We just didn’t perform tonight as we got outplayed by Red Bank. They got more out of their kids than we did. Their pitchers kept us in check the whole night, although we had a chance to come back early and didn’t.
“We struck out 14 or 15 times and we left the bases loaded at least twice. It’s tough to win games like this when you don’t execute,” he added.
Bradley, now 29-8, finished with just three hits, including two by Taylor Bryant, who also had two runs batted in. B.J. Morgan had the other hit, a single that led off the third.
Red Bank improves to 25-15 with 10 runs on 11 hits. Third baseman Alan Walden was the only Lion without a hit, but he walked twice and scored both times.
Bales, Barker and Ward all had two hits while Bembry, Adkins, Emery, Clabo and Ledbetter all finished with one.
Bradley 002 110 0 – 4 3 0
Red Bank 403 120 x – 10 11 3
Brand, Thompson (2), Bryant (4), Cabrera and Casteel; Clabo, Ward (3) and Barker.
(Email John Hunt at tnmoose2002@aol.com)
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