SMYRNA – It took an extra day, but the Greeneville baseball team got the Class 3A State Tournament started the right way on Wednesday afternoon at Smyrna High School.
Facing the No.3 ranked team in the state, and maybe the top arm in the tournament, the Greene Devils made tough plays on defense and made big moves on the base path to take a 4-1 win over South Gibson.
“It feels really good to start out with a win,” Greeneville senior Carson Quillen said. “When we looked at the draws, we thought this was the No.1 vs No.2 matchup. You don’t initially want that in the first game, let’s just be honest. But we also knew if we took care of business right now it would be a big boost into the rest of the tournament. This was a complete team game. Everyone did their thing, and it turned out in our favor.”
Coming into the contest the hype was around the pitching duel between Greeneville’s Mr. Baseball winner, Carson Quillen, and South Gibson’s University of Tennessee commit, Cade Allen. Allen, who reportedly throws in the mid 90s and struck out 91 batters during the regular, was tough to figure out early, but the Greene Devils did enough to push across four runs on Wednesday.
“If he’s the arm of the tournament, not to be disrespectful, but I like our odds,” Quillen said.
South Gibson scored the first run of the day in the bottom of the third inning. Thomas Baker got the side started by firing a line drive into the right-field corner for a triple. Gage Nesbitt then put a sacrifice fly into left field to score the Hornets’ lone run of the day.
Greeneville did not waste any time answering and put up three runs in the fourth inning. Carson Norris started the side by sending a groundball to the second baseman that was booted. Noah Murray worked a two-out walk and the Kobe Mundy broke the game open with the Greene Devils’ first hit of the afternoon.
Mundy sent a shot into shallow left field that landed in front of a diving defender. Norris scored easily on the play, but then when Allen cut the throw to the plate and tried to catch Mundy going to second chaos ensued. The throw went over the waiting defender and nearly rolled all the way to the fence. That allowed courtesy runner Jack Lister to easily score and Mundy made it all the way around the bases for the little-league home run.
“I look up and see that they are firing home, so I knew I was taking second,” Mundy said. “Then the ball is in centerfield. At that point I’m just praying my legs don’t give out. I gave it my all to make it home.”
The play gave Greeneville all of the momentum and the Greene Devils never looked back.
With one out in the fifth inning Greeneville coach Andy Collins made a gutsy call to pull Quillen from the mound with 74 pitches. That allows Quillen to pitch again on Saturday in the state championship game, if the Devils advance that far.
Randen Fillers took over on the hill and four pitches later the defense made their coach’s call the right one. With runners on the corners Allen hit a ground ball to Quillen, now at shortstop. He flipped to Kaine Ricker who delivered to Mundy at first for an inning-ending double play.
“It’s huge to know we have a plan and that we have guys that can come in and do the job,” Quillen said. “A lot of teams don’t have that luxury, but having this kind of depth is huge in this tournament.”
In the top of the sixth inning Greeneville added an insurance run and stretched the lead to 4-1.
The fleet-footed Mundy snuck a ground ball through the left side on a hit a run. He moved up on an error and fielder’s choice before scoring on a wild pitch.
Mundy had two of Greeneville’s five hits on Wednesday, and fellow senior, Murray, reached base three times with two walks and a single.
In the bottom of the sixth inning South Gibson loaded the base, but Will Harmon took over on the mound and got out of the jam by forcing Brock Beasley to hit into a soft groundout.
Quillen earned the mound victory on Wednesday. In 4 1/3 innings he struck out three, walked two and allowed five hits.
Fillers threw 1 1/3 innings with two walks and one hit allowed. Harmon threw 1 1/3 shutout innings to finish the game.
Greeneville stays in the winners bracket and could be two wins away from a state championship game appearance. The Greene Devils will be back in action on Thursday against Upperman. Upperman defeated Chester County on Wednesday 4-0.
“We have seen teams lose game one and come all the way back, but getting the first win is huge. We know that we could see these guys again. Our big thing is to stay focused on the day and not look ahead,” Quillen said.
