The crack of a bat putting a ball in play; it was a sound heard over, and over, and over, and over on Friday’s partly cloudy afternoon. But Zach Porter’s swing was followed by a unique roar, one only caused by the two game-winning runs following one another around the basepaths to win the state championship. The sophomore’s epic swing was the last act of a chaotic 14-13 McCallie win over Lipscomb, a walk off hit Porter will never forget.
“I was up there, and I knew I had to come through and put the bat on the ball there,” Porter said.
“It squeaked through, and it felt amazing.”
“We always knew we were confident the whole way,” J. Michael Pierce said. “We knew we were going to come back. I knew he was going to score because Zach always comes up big.”
One look at the official box score indicates a game that gave almost every fan in attendance the opportunity to experience the entire range of human emotions. McCallie burned through six pitchers, with none throwing more than two and a third innings.
Ethan Crump started the game but ran into some trouble, giving up three runs in the first inning. And so came in a parade of arms, six of them to be exact. One of those was William Baker, who said the Blue Tornado never gave up faith even after falling behind on several occasions.
“Nobody had their ace on the mound, and everyone had to play,” slugger Carter Hewitt said. “It was just a dogfight. We knew it wasn’t going to be a 2-1 game. We knew it was going to be a dogfight between our offenses, and our offense showed up a little more than theirs did.”
“We kept fighting every time, and we knew we’d answer all of their runs,” Baker said. “We never stopped believing. Never stopped.”
McCallie scored four in the bottom of the first, with Hudson Calhoun singling to score one, Hewitt coming home on an error, and Ralston Welch and Porter each driving in one teammate. That lead evaporated in the next inning, when Lipscomb scored a pair of other runs. And so that’s who the entire game went.
There was a brief respite in the middle of the game, when McCallie got a run back and tied for a few innings of scoreless ball, pitched by Evan Winnie on McCallie’s side. But in the fifth, The Blue Tornado put up two on Pierce line drive, and when Javen Johnson created a dust storm on a gutsy decision to run on a wild pitch.
“It says a lot about them, because we could’ve given up early,” coach said. “We lost (ace pitcher) Austin Breedlove early in the tournament. But these guys just kept coming out, and we’ve got great arms. Our bats came around too.”
All McCallie had to do was hold on for six outs to their 7-5 lead. But in a game this frenetic, it should have been obvious that wasn’t going to happen. Lipscomb’s bats hammered four runs in the sixth and seventh innings, while McCallie mustered two in the sixth. The Blue Tornado walked into the bottom of the seventh down four. They needed luck to win, and luck is what they got.
Lipscomb’s second baseman botched what should have been an easy popup to put one runner on, and then Reece Jordan’s pop fly a few batters later also dropped when the fielder misplayed the softly-hit ball. Up walked senior leader Hewitt with an opportunity to make a legacy-defining play.
Hewitt promptly sent the ball over the fence and cut Lipscomb lead to one.
“By the time Carter hit the home run, I knew we had it (won),” Porter said. “The momentum was going our way, and our team never gave up. I knew at the end we’d come through.”
McCallie’s side of the crowd morphed into a blue blob of shouts and joyous screams while Hewitt fired up his teammates with exhortations as he rounded into home plate. McCallie’s next three batters loaded the bases for Porter, who found a gap in between third and the shortstop to win McCallie their first championship since 2014.
“We had the talent at the beginning of the year, but we couldn’t find the chemistry,” Hewitt said. “But this last month or two, we just found it. We’ve been in a doghouse together, and there’s nothing better than what we’ve got going on in this program right now.”
BOX SCORE:
LIPSCOMB: 320 004 4 – 13/11/4
MCCALLIE: 401 022 5 – 14/12/1
WP: CRUMP
LP: BORDERS
*Story edited after the author incorrectly referred to Evan Winnie as the starter.
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