An ace and an ace-in-the-hole did their jobs Friday night and because of it, the Bradley Bears and McMinn County Cherokees find themselves on the brink of a region berth.
Bradley’s ace Cooper Casteel and McMinn’s closer-turned-starter Ollie Akens both twirled two-hit masterpieces as the Bears shutout East Hamilton, 2-0, and the Cherokees blanked Cleveland, 5-0, in the opener of best-of-3 District 5AAA semifinal bouts at Ooltewah’s AC Bud Ball Field last night.
The semis will continue on Saturday with McMinn and Cleveland playing at noon and the Bradley-East Hamilton series slated for a 3 o’clock first pitch.
If both series conclude on Saturday, the 5AAA finals will be played Monday night at 7 p.m. If either series goes to three games, they would be played on Monday with the title tilt on Tuesday night.
The regular-season champion Bears finally put an end to a trend that showed just how even this year’s 5AAA league was. Up until Bradley walked off the field a winner, every team which had been swept during the regular season by a foe had extracted revenge. The Bears swept the Canes on the final week of the regular season, 16-4 and 4-1, but battled an inspired East Hamilton bunch that has staved off elimination twice just to get to the semis. The Canes beat two teams which swept them in the regular season in Walker Valley and Ooltewah to earn the slot.
McMinn avenged a costly sweep at the hands of Cleveland from the final week. Ooltewah had earlier got even for a sweep at the hand of Soddy Daisy before the elimination by East Hamilton.
“There’s not a lot of difference between No. 1 and No. 7 that’s for sure. Everyone started at 0-0 again, and the results so far have shown just that. It’s a new day,” said East Hamilton’s Matt Ramsey, whose Canes are still alive despite a last place finish in the league.
Bradley Central 2, East Hamilton 0: The Bears were able to buck the avengers’ trends by doing what they do best: defense, manufacturing runs and pitching. Casteel was fantastic in getting the rare shutout of the offensive-minded Canes.
“From start to finish, probably the best stuff I have had all year. I’ve gotten through some outings this year where I found it at some point during a game or just gutted it out, but tonight the ball felt really good coming out of my hand. My curve was sharp and my defense was solid as usual,” said Casteel, who improved to 6-1 on the season.
Casteel, in fact, provided most of the defense himself, striking out 12 Canes with an array of breaking pitches which either froze hitters or had them swinging at dirt balls.
“Coop was the story of the game. That was probably the most nerve-wrecking two-hitter I’ve seen. We didn’t do a lot to help him out, but baseball is hard, and getting those timely hits isn’t always easy. This is the first postseason for some of these kids, and it’s a different stage. You can play bad in April and fix it, but in May it’s a different story. This is the prove-it season,” said Bradley coach Travis Adams. “The pitching has been there all season and we play good defense, and that gives us a chance most nights.”
True to his word, the Bears have allowed just 23 runs in 13 league games now which is 20 runs less than their closest competitor in league play, McMinn County. East Hamilton starter Jase Phillips gave the Canes a chance to try to solve Casteel, allowing just four hits, but no one more a master at stealing a run here and there than Adams.
Casteel doubled to open the second inning and was immediately sacrificed to third. With the Canes infield drawn in, Aiden McClary slipped a grounder between third and short to send courtesy runner Memphis Flowers home for a 1-0 lead.
The Bears got an breathe a little bit easier insurance run in the sixth when McClary lined a two-out hit to right. McClary promptly stole second base and a wild pitch moved him to third. East Hamilton reliever Brayden Jasper hit his first batter, Iverson Vasquez, and Adams rolled the dice. Vasquez took off for second while Jasper was in the windup, and as soon as he stepped off and went to second, the speedy McClary broke for home and beat the relay on the double steal.
Casteel retired the final seven batters, including a three-pitch sixth inning in which he got two grounders and a pop up. In the seventh, he struck out the side to end it.
“The three-pitch inning was fun, but the strikeouts to end it were pretty fun too,” Casteel grinned.
McClary had two hits for the Bears to go along with Casteel’s double and a Landon Kibler single. Eats Hamilton got a hit from Chase Roberts in the third and Joe Quinlan in the fourth, but Casteel struck out the side in each frame to quell any rally hopes.
“It’s rare for us to get shutout, so tip the cap. We’ve showed up every time our back has been against the wall, so I expect we will do the same tomorrow. We’ve been pretty good when it is do-or-die,” said Ramsey afterwards.
McMinn County 5, Cleveland 0: From the first hit to the last out, the energy was obvious in the Cherokee dugout. Of course, the dugout had as much to do with it as anything.
It was the visitors’ dugout reserved for the lower seed and one the Cherokees didn't think they would see at any point in the district tournament a couple of weeks ago.
And it was the team residing in the home dugout which had the most to do with the forced residency. The Blue Raider's sweep in the final weekend cost McMinn a regular season title.
"I think our energy was a little bit of two things. We had the opportunity to win the district and we choked. It left a bad taste in the mouth and then to get an opportunity to play the team that did it against us, it was easy getting energized," said Cherokee coach David Ray.
The regular season losses may have cost them a seed and a dugout, but it made the decision to start Akens a simple one. He was by far the most effective of McMinn's talented staff against Cleveland and Ray wasn't going to argue with results.
"We have a clear No. 1 and No. 2, no doubt, but Ollie doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's a No. 1 for most people in the state. He's a strike machine and he does it with three different pitches. He shut them down in his last outing and we knew that night if we played them again he would get the ball. He's legit," Ray added.
Akens, a junior committed to MTSU, has been a closer in district games but knew he would get the nod as soon as the bracket got posted. He had struck out four of seven hitters in a hitless relief effort in a 4-2 loss to Cleveland and was every bit as solid last night.
"I knew last week it was my ball. I wanted it and love playing against a competitive team like them. I was really good the first four innings and the defense was great. I just did my job. I think losing to them got us back into the mindset of win the day, and we did today," said Akens.
The slim right-hander struck out eight, walked none and needed just 75 pitches for the complete game two-hit shutout. He only allowed one hard barreled ball, Luke Bevan's leadoff double off the wall in the third but retired the next three. Ethan Jones singled in the fourth after a leadoff error to put two runner on, but Akens responded by striking out the side.
"I wasn't surprised at all to see him out there after his outing last time against us. He's got three really good pitches and he's going to be force out there," said Cleveland coach Preston Scoggins when asked if he expected aces Andrew Ronne or Hayden Frank.
The Cherokee bats made sure it was a good decision by Ray, getting three runs in the second and two more in the third against Cleveland starter Hayden Sells.
Frank worked a walk to open the second and Sam Goodin singled to left. Jace Hyde laid down a sac bunt to move both runners into scoring position. Akens then laced a liner to left to score two. Courtesy runner Jayden Miller then stole second and third with an errant throw on the latter allowing him to score.
In the third, Will Harris was hit by a pitch and Frank doubled deep in the alley to score him from first to make it 4-0. A sac bunt moved him over and Akens single which was knocked down up the middle scored another.
Akens did the rest, retiring 10 in a row at one point. Goodin at third and the shortstop Andrew Beavers both made nice plays.
"We get the opportunity to show who we are tomorrow. As a coach these are the moments you live for when your backs are against the wall," Scoggins added.
LINESCORES
MCMINN CO 032 000 0 – 5 6 2
CLEVELAND 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
Akens and Roderick; Sells, Bevan (7) and Jones.
EAST HAMILTON 000 000 0 – 0 2 2
BRADLEY 010 001 x – 2 4 2
Phillips, Jasper (6) and Evans; Casteel and Lamberth.
(contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)