McCallie pitcher Dane Beard picked up the win in relief Tuesday evening as the Blue Tornado rallied and held on to pick up a 9-6 win in the eighth inning at East Hamilton.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Kristopher Bowman has been around organized baseball long enough to know that it’s never too late to overcome a mistake or a bad outing.
The slender McCallie senior entered Tuesday’s non-district game at East Hamilton with a 4-0 lead. He’s normally a pretty reliable relief pitcher, but Tuesday wasn’t his day on the hill as he walked all four batters he faced and they all scored.
He got a chance to make amends to himself late in the game and he made the most of his opportunity.
With the score tied 5-5 going into extra innings, Dane Beard led off the McCallie eighth with a single to left. Kahler Youngblood then sacrificed Beard to second before Bowman ripped the first pitch he saw deep into center for a run-scoring double.
McCallie went on to score three more runs in that frame and headed back to Missionary Ridge with a 9-6 victory over the Hurricanes.
McCallie coach Tim Costo quickly agreed that Bowman didn’t have his best stuff on the mound, but he was proud of the way he kept battling and eventually found a way to become the hero instead of the goat.
“That’s high-school baseball,” Costo began when asked about the late-inning comeback after having such a comfortable lead early.
“It’s always good to win, but I love how our guys never gave up. Kristopher struggled a little bit, but he’s a competitor and I always want him in our lineup. He didn’t have a very good outing, but he came back and made up for it later.
“We knew there was a lot of baseball left at that point, but it’s all about a process for us. You never know what will happen in certain situations, but we just kept playing hard and eventually something good happened,” Costo added.
Beard, who earned the win as the fifth McCallie pitcher, reached on an infield single to lead off the McCallie second. Johnathon Romero singled to left an out later and Beard scored following the first of five East Hamilton errors.
Grayson Jones then ripped a 1-2 offering over the fence in right-center to put the Blue Tornado up 3-0.
Chad Marsh led off the McCallie third with a walk and eventually scored on another Hurricane miscue to make it 4-0.
Bowman never found his rhythm starting the third and was replaced after walking all four hitters he faced. Pierce Durham drove in a pair of runs with a double to deep center while Noah Pridmore tied the score with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Hurricanes took a 5-4 lead in the fourth when Will Campbell’s bunt single drove in Jackson Stone, who had led off with a single, but the Hurricanes couldn’t get another big hit as they left the bases loaded after scoring the one run.
Bowman had what turned out to be the game-winning hit in the eighth but Carter Edge and Blade Steelman both had run-producing singles while the fourth run scored on another East Hamilton error.
Walker O’Rear got a pinch-hit single to lead off the East Hamilton eighth. Conner Thornburg later reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on a single by Bradley Garland, but Beard avoided any further trouble after getting Blake Hedrick on a fly to center to end the game.
East Hamilton coach Steve Garland didn’t dodge any bullets when asked about the key to the game.
“We just made too many mistakes. We had our opportunities when we took the lead in the fourth and we even loaded the bases, but couldn’t get another big hit,” the veteran coach expressed after his team fell to 21-11 with the defeat.
“I thought that Isaac Moulds pitched well as our starter, but he went to too many deep counts. And I thought that Noah Pridmore pitched well in the seventh before missing a couple of spots in the eighth.
“It’s not every day you have a chance to beat a team like McCallie, but we just didn’t make it happen. It’s hard to beat anyone when you make five errors,” Garland concluded.
Both teams finished the day with 10 hits.
Beard had three hits for McCallie while Steelman had two.
Garland was the only East Hamilton player with more than one hit and he had three. The biggest was a two-out triple in the first as he ripped a pitch to deep center. Chad Marsh lost his footing while giving chase, but recovered quickly enough to fire a strike back to the infield where the relay throw home nailed the hard-running junior to end the inning.
McCallie’s next game is at Warren County on Thursday before a key region series at Lipscomb Academy on Friday and Saturday. East Hamilton’s next game will be at home on Saturday against East Ridge.
McCALLIE 031 010 04 – 9 10 2
EAST HAMILTON 004 100 01 – 6 10 5
Jones, Bowman (3), McBrayer (3), Youngblood (5), Beard (7) and Edge; Moulds, Pridmore (7) and Campbell.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)