SMYRNA – It took two games that played out in almost completely opposite fashion, but the Greeneville baseball team persevered on Friday evening to keep it state championship hopes alive.
Friday’s state semifinals began with a 9-1 loss to South Gibson in a contest that started poorly and never got better. But playing from the winners bracket the Greene Devils got a second chance. In game two the bats came alive, the defense executed in nearly every situation, and Carson Norris gave his squad exactly what it needed on the mound. The result was a 9-1 win that sends Greeneville to Saturday’s Class 3A State Championship game.
“It feels amazing to be going back to the state championship game,” Greeneville senior shortstop Carson Quillen said. “A lot of guys hit the ball, but it starts with Carson Norris on the mound. Norris got us off to a fabulous start and he didn’t let a really good team hit the ball. We had guys step up on offense, and that is what we are going to need tomorrow. It feels amazing right now, we’re going to enjoy this moment, but when we get back to the hotel we have to start preparing for tomorrow.”
The Class 3A State Championship Game will be held at Sigel High School in Murfreesboro on Saturday. The first pitch against Munford is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central/ 12 p.m. Eastern Time.
“It feels great right now. It’s bittersweet because I know it will be my last game with these guys that I’ve spent four years with, but it feels great to know we are playing for another ring,” Greeneville senior first baseman Kobe Mundy said.
After being held to three hits in the day’s first contest the Devils needed to get something going early in game two, and a two-out rally in the top of the first inning proved to be the prescription to put a stranglehold on the game’s momentum.
Maddox Bishop got things going by sending a hard groundball through the left side, and Will Harmon put him on third with a shot into the left-center gap.
Bishop gave Greeneville the lead when he darted to the dish on a passed ball. Noah Murry walked, and Kobe Mundy pushed the lead to 3-0 when he went back to the gap on the left side for a two-run double. The left-center gap was good to Grayson Crosby as well, and his single scored Mundy for a 4-0 lead.
That ended the day of South Gibson starting pitcher Jackson Isley.
“We got more hits in the first inning than we had in the whole first game, and we needed that. It was huge for our offense. We had confidence going out to play defense, and it let Norris pitch with a lead the whole way. I think that start on offense carried into everything else,” Quillen said.
Mundy had the big bat on Friday night, going 3-for-4 with a double, four RBIs and two runs scored.
“In the first game I hit a ball into the outfield and realized that this field isn’t playing great. So I started trying to hit it on the ground. That is what I did, and it turned into hits. That first one felt great. When I saw it drop and two runs scored it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I’m a player that is nervous before every game, but with that first hit it was all gone.”
South Gibson’s Thomas Baker would not make things easy on the Devils’ defense and led off the bottom of the inning with a double that traveled deep into right field. He went on to score on a fielder’s choice before Norris ended the inning with a strike out.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the third, Greeneville really put pressure on the Hornets by stretching the lead to 7-0 in the top of the fourth.
Three walks loaded the bases and ended Cason Coggins time on the rubber. Then, Will Harmon took the first pitch Myles McClure delivered and sent it into left field. The defense got turned around and the ball found the turf, allowing Quillen to score.
With two outs Mundy sent a line drive into left field that got both Jaxon Winter and Bishop back to the plate for a 7-1 lead.
On the day Greeneville pounded 11 hits in the contest. In addition to Mundy’s three-hit day, Harmon and Crosby both had two hits. Norris and Bishop each had one hit and walked twice.
South Gibson started the bottom of the fourth by putting its first two batters on base, but Norris showed he can field his position too, and halted the Hornets’ hope when he fired to third to erase the lead runner. Bishop took in an easy line drive up the middle, and Quillen stepped on second to end the threat with no damage done.
South Gibson’s defense escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, but Greeneville got going again in the sixth. Murray led off the side by sending a single straight up the middle, and Mundy followed with a single through the left side.
Courtesy runner Jack Lister scored on a wild pitch and Mundy scored when Jeriah Griffin hit into a fielder’s choice. Griffin beating the throw to first allowed the run to count.
With a 9-1 lead Greeneville sat down South Gibson’s final six batters in order and reached the state championship game for the third time in program history.
“It was just one adjustment at a time. It’s the third straight year we’ve lost the third game of the tournament, and I was feeling pretty down, but Carson (Quillen) lifted us up between games. He’s a great leader and he made sure we were focused. We took that into the game two and it worked,” Mundy said.
Norris earned the win on Friday in a complete game effort. He struck out three, walked four and scattered five hits. Most importantly he didn’t allow the potent Hornets offense to make hard contact, and he gave his defense opportunities to make plays behind him.
“We knew the pressure was on us, and they had the momentum, but that four-run first inning flipped everything. That start was amazing,” Norris said. “It allowed me to have an attack mentality. Last year I think I put too much pressure on myself when I threw here, but today I just let my guys work behind me. I’m not a strikeout pitcher. It’s about letting the pitches work. Everybody saw the foul-ball home run, and it takes being ok with that. It takes being ok with a groundball up the middle because you know the defense can turn two the next time. I just had to be confident in putting the ball over the plate and letting the defense work.”
Greeneville last won the state title in 2023, and six starters from that team will be in the lineup again on Saturday. One of those is Quillen who started on the mound that year, and will be back on the bump for his final game as a Greene Devil.
“For me it’s about resetting tonight and starting to prepare for tomorrow,” Quillen said. “We’re glad we’re in the state championship game, but we want to win it. We didn’t want to go to graduation tomorrow; we want to be here to win it. It’s about filling up the zone and throwing strikes, and if the offense can do what it did today it will be hard to beat us.”
GAME 1
South Gibson 9, Greeneville 1
While game two on Friday saw Greeneville get off to a hot start, in game one it was South Gibson who took command early and never looked back on the way to a 9-1 win.
In the first inning Gage Nesbitt and Cade Allen were both hit by pitches, and two wild pitches put Nesbitt on third. Jack Bradberry put down a bunt single that gave the Hornets a 1-0 lead. Kaine Ricker caught a line drive and stepped on second to end the inning with an unassisted double play.
Things began to unravel in the second when four consecutive Hornets walked and then Baker sent a two-run single through the left side. Nesbitt hit into a double play that allowed Brock Beasly to score as the lead grew to 5-0.
Greeneville’s lone run crossed in the third inning when a bases-loaded walk scored Quillen, but that inning ended with the bases loaded.
In the fourth inning Nesbitt scored another on a sacrifice fly and Allen put an RBI double into left field.
Beasley hit into an error in the fifth inning that scored John Brafa.
While it may have not seemed liked much to most in attendance at Smyrna on Friday Greeneville relief pitchers Sam Thompson, Jaxon Winter and Branton White kept the lead from getting to 10 runs and ending game the early. That forced South Gibson starter Tyler Dehaan to go into the seventh inning and use 104 pitches.
If the game ended early Dehaan might have started game two as well, and Greeneville’s offense may not have started as quickly.
Greenville was held to three hits in the game and Quillen had two of them.
South Gibson used seven hits, nine walks and three hit batters to score its nine runs.
Dehaan earned the win for the Hornets. In seven innings he struck out eight, walked three and allowed three hits.
Randen Fillers took the loss. In one inning he walked three, allowed one hit and struck out none.
