CLEVELAND, Tenn -- The Farragut Admirals are the standard for Tennessee prep baseball and in being so search out only the best of competition once spring arrives. Rarely do the Admirals venture into a weekend baseball tournament without the sole goal of being pushed to their limits in search of a challenge which will hopefully pay off down the road.
And when the 11-time TSSAA state champions, including defenders of last year's AAA crown, agreed to be part of the first annual Joe Adams Memorial Classic which both honored the legendary Bradley Central coach who passed away last year and raised money for Alzheimer's Research, it was on the lone stipulation they would face the best the 13-team tournament had to offer.
"The Adams family has been good friends and I consider (Bradley coach) Travis one of my good friends, so we wanted to be here to support the event, but we also came because Travis promised we would get good competition," said Farragut boss Matt Buckner.
And they got just that Friday afternoon at Walker Valley High School, one of four host sites for the event, when McCallie, the defending D-II state champs, took to the opposing dugout.
"They've got a really good club, and they're used to playing really good competition. It was a quality opponent and a quality win which we're happy to get," added Buckner after the Admirals 3-0 victory over the Blue Tornado.
With Farragut returning eight position starters from last year's squad and McCallie bringing back five as well as perhaps the state's best pitching rotation, the game was everything it was billed with one small exception. The Blue Tornado used all three of their Division I trio of pitchers on Thursday leaving a whole lot of what if any of them had been available.
"It's all about protecting arms and trying to keep them on a schedule to pitch league games, and we didn't have any plans to stray from that," said McCallie coach Tim Costo. "We know what we have in the three horses, but I thought we got solid innings out of both our guys today. Against a club like that, you have to keep them off balance, and I thought we did just that."
Farragut, which has won 30 or more games in each of the last 15 seasons (40+ in five of them) which have been played and won eight state titles in that span, pushed across two runs in its first at bat with three singles that literally hit the same patch of grass between in front of the left fielder. Lucas Buckner led off with a single, Brennon Seigler followed with another and Eli Evans worked a one-out walk before Michael Delph plated a run with his safety. Jake Merrick then grounded out to first to make it 2-0 against the crafty lefty Ben Propes, who got the start and went three solid innings.
"I wish we would have had better discipline at the plate and some better at-bats, but this field played really big with wind blowing like it was. We hit a couple of balls that would have been gappers, but got nothing from them. After the first inning, I thought we were in for a big game, but it wasn't to be," added Buckner.
While the senior Propes wasn't Hudson Calhoun (Ole Miss), Olin Johnson (North Carolina) or Grayson Smith (Florida), he settled in nicely and kept the Admirals off stride after the first.
"I was pleased with how he pitched and I was really happy with (J. Michael) Pierce and the way he came in relief. He's not really a pitcher, but has a cannon arm and we've asked him to work on it, and he has," said Costo.
Pierce worked the final three frames and allowed just one hit, retiring nine of the 10 hitters he faced on 45 pitches.
The problem for McCallie wasn't the absence of the mound monsters, but rather a Farragut defense that was unyielding. The Blue Tornado only struck out twice the entire game, but every ball that was hit was handled with efficiency by the Admiral nine. Farragut did have one error but it was quickly erased on a turned double play (one of two on the day) as lefty Ashton Sulack went four innings and allowed just a Bryce Sanders double. Reid Thomason took the final three innings on the hill and after giving up a solid single to Pierce on his first pitch, retired nine of the final 11.
"I thought we had good plate approaches and that's what we preach at practice. Hopefully when you put the ball in play that much you force a few errors. We believe in that process, but credit to them for making all the plays," said Costo.
Added Buckner of his defense: "We have a lot of experienced athletes and we expect them to make the plays. I thought our pitchers pounded the zone and made them hit, and when the park is playing like it did today, you expect to get outs."
Farragut pushed across its final run in the third after Seigler walked and Evans did the same one out later. Seigler's steal of third set up Delph for a deep sac fly to push Seigler across for the insurance run.
Farragut had five hits spread out across the lineup while McCallie was limited to just the two hits.
MCCALLIE 000 000 0 -- 0 2 1
FARRAGUT 201 000 x -- 3 5 1
Popes, Pierce (4) and Davidson; Sulack, Thomason (5) and Brewer.
Farragut 6, Rabun Gap 4: The Admirals finished off the night with another well played victory over another solid squad in Rabun Gap (NC). Rabun had taken a 3-1 lead before Farragut tied it in the fourth with a pair and added two more to the lead in the fourth and a solo tally in the fifth.
Lukas Buckner singled in a run and a wild pitch plated the tying run in that third frame before Schulze singled in two runs in the fourth with a liner to center. Buckner added three hits and Schultze two as Admiral pitching struck out 12 on the night.
AT SODDY DAISY
Lincoln County 12, Soddy Daisy 2: The Falcons from Fayetteville (Tn) put crooked numbers up each of the first four innings and used a trio of pitchers to limit the Trojans to just three hits on the day in Joe Adams Memorial Classic.
Rhett Persell did the most damage for Lincoln County with a second inning grand slam after the Falcons had scored three in the first on a passed ball, a steal of home and a base hit. Braxton Whitt added an RBI single in the third and Maddox Meeks followed with a run-scoring double. Brett Dobbs added an RBI double and Zach Hernandez joined Persell with two hits.
AJ Florio's ground out drove in a run for Soddy Daisy and Ryan Applegate got the other run across when his grounder was misplayed.
Lincoln County 7, Boyd Buchanan 4: The Falcons got the sweep and improved to 9-2 on the year with some aggressive base running getting them going and a trio of sacrifices. Maddox Meeks walked and stole second and third in the first inning before Will Harwell's sac fly chased him home on the tag.
The Bucs answered with a sac fly of their own off the bat of Aaron Hise, but an error, a ground out RBI and Carter Bankston's single made it 3-1 in the third. The Falcons added two more in the fourth on a Colton Tate sac fly and a balk with a runner on third. Tate added another RBI single in the sixth to push out to a 6-1 lead.
The Bucs got the bats going in the bottom of the sixth, pushing a pair across on the bats of Martin and Goodwin, both who plated runs with run-scoring singles. Lincoln got an insurance tally in the seventh on a sac bunt by Harwell. Three Falcon pitchers combined on a six hitter while Hernadez and Tate each had two base knocks. Haden Griffith led the Bucs with two hits from his leadoff spot.
Boyd Buchanan threatened again in the seventh with a single and two walks to load the bases, but managed to get just one across after Logan Martin drew the bases loaded walk before a strikeout end the game.
At CLEVELAND HIGH SCHOOL
McMinn County 7, Marion County 0: The Cherokees got their fifth shutout of the young season as Sam Green and Landon Fugate combined for a five-hit masterpiece. McMinn County struck first with a trio of runs in the first and tacked on two runs in each of the fifth and sixth frames to cruise to the win.
Mason Roderick doubled in the Cherokees' first run and Jayden Miller followed up with a double of his own to get things started. Jace Hyde's grounder plated the third run. Roderick drove both runs in the fifth with a single after Brooks Berry had doubled and Ethan Barnett drew a walk. In the sixth, it was Berry's turn to double in two more runs. Berry, Roderick and Reese Frazier each had two hits in the win. Green went the first five innings allowing just four Warrior hits and Fugate struck out five in the final two innings. McMinn County is now 7-2.
Cleveland 7, Marion County 0: Josh Whitaker tossed a complete game one-hitter and the Blue Raiders broke open a 1-0 game with three runs in the fourth and seventh innings to nail down the win. A Mycah Jordan steal of third set up the early lead as the speedster came around to score on a ground out in the first. Henry Pirtle singled in a run to start the fourth before a sac bunt by Tyler Gardner was thrown away and allowed two more to cross the plate.
In the seventh, Evan Liner doubled in a run before Cameron Liner's liner was misplayed allowing two more in. Whitaker struck out five and allowed just a leadoff single by Mason Shrum in the third and retired the final 15 Marion batters.
At BRADLEY CENTRAL
Combine Academy 4, CAK 0: Columbine Academy, a post secondary school, used three pitchers to combine for a three-hit shutout.
Combine Academy 5, McCallie 4: Combine Academy scored all five of its runs in the fourth inning to erase an early 3-0 McCallie lead. Academy got on the board with a two-run homer after a walk to open the frame and before the inning was done, added a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, an RBI single and RBI double netting three of its four hits for the game.
McCallie had taken the early lead on a Chap Bandy single to left in the second and Reece Jordan followed it up with a grounder that was misplayed into an error to make it 2-0. Hayden Choate singled in a run in the third to make it 3-0 before the fourth proved fatal. Nolan Sergeant made things interesting with a ground out RBI in the sixth and McCallie put the tying run on in the seventh but stranded it.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)