Championship Bound: Devils Blow Past Tornadoes To Return To State Title Game

SMYRNA – The Greeneville baseball team was undeterred by a slow start on Thursday night and finished strong to earn its third appearance in the Class 3A State Championship Game in four years.

The Greene Devils came into Thursday’s action knowing Alcoa had to beat them twice in order to advance, and the Tornadoes took care of business in game one with a 9-3 victory. But in game two Greeneville used some fireworks at the midway point to pull away to a 11-6 victory.

“I couldn’t be more proud or more stoked for my teammates. Our hard work has paid off and it means the world,” Greeneville senior Tegan Begley said. “This is super exciting. We knew we were the better team, and we knew what our goal was. Our goal was not to make the state tournament, it wasn’t to be in the final four, our goal is to win a state championship.”

Greeneville now turns its attention to repeating as state champions and that will take place on Friday at 11 AM central time at Siegel High School in Murfreesboro. The Greene Devils will take on Crockett County who beat Heritage twice on Thursday in its semifinal.

Not only is Greeneville looking to repeat it is trying to win the fourth state championship in program history and third in four years. Greeneville improved to 41-9 on the year after Thursday’s win which is a program record.

“This is our expectation, and coming into the year every single person in our dugout knew that we would get to this point,” Greeneville senior Will Harmon said. “I’m grateful to be able to do it for the third time. We lost a lot of seniors from last year and a lot of people didn’t know what to expect from us. We came out and showed a lot of people who we are.”

It was a couple of monstrous swats in the fourth inning that blew the game open on Thursday.

Down 2-1 the frame started with Grayson Crosby, Kase Spradlen and Jack Lister all working walks. Jaxon Winter came up next and flew a sacrifice into left field to even the score at 2-2.

Maddox Bishop and his red-hot steel stepped to plate next and he lofted a shot to left field that kept carrying on the windy evening before falling just over the wall at Smyrna High School for a three-run home run that put Greeneville up 5-2.

Bishop has been on fire in the state tournament. In game two he reached base four times, he has two home runs in the tournament, and overall he is 7-for-14 at the plate.

“I think baseball is the biggest mindset game there is. If I’m thinking about putting a good barrel on it, then it’s going to happen. I came out trying to be aggressive and I saw the right pitch and took advantage of it. Then when I saw it had some air under it I got real excited,” Bishop said.

Greeneville’s two-out rally was not done, and Kaine Ricker and Tegan Begley each followed by beating out infield singles. That brought Will Harmon to the plate, and Greeneville’s top power hitter sent another three-run blast over the wall. The Devils were now in control with an 8-2 lead.

“Maddox has been on all tournament, and when he hit that one out I was thinking that I need to do that too,” Harmon said. “That was my mentality going up there. I saw a first-pitch curveball. After that he threw the exact pitch just a little higher, and that was the one to do it with. That was so huge. I think it relieved us, and Tegan came back and had a huge inning on the mound after that.”

Alcoa was not going to go down easy and tried to put together its own rally in the sixth inning. Levi Spivey got things going with a line drive through the right side. Parker Davis landed another ball in right field and Cory Hatcher knocked in the first run on a line drive to left field.

That ended Begley’s day on the mound, but the Tornadoes were not done. Carver Worde sent a high chopper to the left side, and when the ball was thrown out of play both runners scored to close the gap to 8-6.

Begley did not finish how he would have liked, but he kept the Tornadoes guessing for five innings. He finished with 10 strikeouts, two walks, and seven hits allowed. Three of those hits came in the sixth inning.

“My fastball felt good, my slider was working, my changeup felt good. Everything was working today. It was just trusting my stuff and not overdoing it. If you throw strikes good things happen,” Begley said. “The slider has always been my strikeout pitch and my fastball felt like it had extra juice. When you are on the mound and productive like that it’s a great feeling.”

Greeneville opened the game back up in the bottom of the sixth. Sam Thompson drove in two runs when he skipped a groundball through the right side. Pinch runner Randen Filler moved around the base path on a pair of passed balls to push the lead to 11-6.

Alcoa scored first in Thursday’s second game. Brodie King led off with a walk and scored when Miles Watson fired a groundball through the left side.

Greeneville evened the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the first. Bishop started the side with a walk and Begley sent a shot down the third-base line to score him from second.

Alcoa regained the lead at 2-1 in the top of the fourth. Ty Eichman sent a single to left-center and he scored when Spivey got one to land in centerfield.

Greeneville finished game two with 13 hits. Harmon went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Thompson was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Begley was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Bishop was 1-for-2 with a home run, three RBIs and three walks.