After a quick pitstop to finish Tuesday’s game that Mother Nature didn’t want to see finished, McCallie and Chattanooga Christian played their last regular season games on Thursday night. This game too ended short, but this time, it was due to different circumstances—mercy rule. After only five innings, the last pitch was thrown, and the scoreboard signaled an 18-1 win for McCallie.
It was a gloomy night at John Visser field on Thursday. An overcast was present, and the humidity suggested rain was coming sooner than later, but nevertheless, some baseball was played.
After the first inning, the game was tied 1-1—CCS’s one run coming from a solo bomb by the starting pitcher, Luke Tinholt.
From there, though, it was all McCallie, scoring at least three runs in each inning following, compared to the Chargers zero.
“They squared up some balls tonight,” said Tim Costo, McCallie’s head coach. “We were very fortunate to hit the ball hard tonight and score some runs.”
Over the course of the game, McCallie tallied 17 hits, including doubles from Nolan Sergeant, Ethan Crump, Bryce Sanders, Parker Davidson and Ralston Welch. The rest of the hits secured by McCallie were all singles.
This big offensive outing was caused not only by McCallie’s big bats, but also CCS’s poor pitching performance. Between all four pitchers CCS put on the mound on Thursday, they combined for a whopping nine walks. To Costo, this was the reason his Blue Tornados were able to score so many runs.
“They had trouble throwing strikes tonight, so we really just took advantage of it,” Costo said. “We really struggled at the plate this year, so it was nice to get out there and really square some balls up.”
On the other hand, McCallie excelled defensively. Besides Tinholt’s shot into the trees, and a first inning single by Keegan Nieckula, the Chargers couldn’t seem to put a ball into play. Austin Breedlove came out for McCallie and pitched the first four innings, and in those four innings, he tallied eight strikeouts.
“He’s [Breedlove] been our most consistent pitcher all year,” Costo said. “We’ve got some really good arms, but he’s definitely one of our best. This was just another really good outing for him.”
From there, Evan Winnie stepped in and closed the game—throwing two strikeouts himself in the process.
The four pitchers for CCS were Luke Tinholt, Keegan Nieckula, Will Henderson and Brooks Jackson. Henderson was the only pitcher who managed to strike a batter out.
With this dominant win, McCallie finished their regular season out with a clean sweep over CCS, as well as second in the district. With the postseason on deck, Costo is glad his team was able to finish out the stretch on a high note.
“It’s great that we have some momentum heading into the playoffs,” Costo said. “It gives these kids some confidence as a team. Fortunately, everyone got a couple of at-bats tonight and at least a hit, and that’s huge because confidence means a lot at this high school level.”
With this win under their belt, McCallie finished 8-4 in the district this season—their losses coming to Baylor and Knox Catholic. CCS winded up 0-8 in conference play.
McCallie 163 35 – 18 17 0
Chattanooga Christian 100 00 – 1 2 2
Breedlove, Winnie, Porter; Tinholt, Nieckula, Henderson, Jackson, Tyler