Wow! Delmonico 11th-hour blast, 'Ironman' Pfeifer pitching llft FHS Baseball to state record threepeat Ads win third straight
Class AAA state title,
edge Houston with late homer Alan Sloan - Sat, May, 29, 2010
Nicky Delmonico leaps in joy as he's about to touch home plate to cap Farragut's dramatic 3-1 state title win versus Houston.- Alan Sloan/farragutpress
MURFREESBORO — Led by the “shocked” Man of the Moment, Nicky Delmonico, and the Ironman of the entire TSSAA state baseball tournament, pitcher Philip Pfeifer, Farragut High School Baseball made history Friday evening.
In just about the most dramatic way possible.
Delmonico provided a storybook Admirals finish in the Class AAA state tile game versus Houston May 28 at Oakland High School: smacking a two-out, two-strike change up deep over the right field fence in the bottom of the seventh inning for a walk-off 3-1 FHS victory.
“I’m in shock,” Delmonico said moments after his two-run blast, and Pfeifer’s remarkably tireless dominance on the mound over four days — more than 250 pitches, 15 innings, 0 earned runs, 25 strikeouts, seven hits — led the Admirals (42-6) to a TSSAA-record third consecutive state crown. It now marks six state titles for Farragut the past eight years.
“I couldn’t believe it until it went over the fence, and then I couldn’t wait to get home and see all my teammates,” Delmonico said.
“I knew he was going to come back in with a change up since I was out in front [on two previous change ups].
“He left one up and I connected,” added Delmonico, a junior standout shortstop who had three home runs in five state tourney games and either drove in or scored eight of Farragut’s 17 total runs at state.
Matt Buckner, FHS head coach, labeled Pfeifer’s week “the best pitching performance I’ve ever witnessed in a four-day span, ever,” as the junior two-time All-state lefty named tourney Most Valuable Player improved to 16-0 on the season while allowing just one Mustangs hit, a second-inning leadoff double.
Pfeifer walked three but struck out 14 Friday.
“He is so competitive. … His weight room [habits], his working out, his throwing, he’s relentless worker,” Buckner added about Pfeifer. “That’s why he can do that.
“It’s more than any human I’ve ever seen can do.”
Buckner said Delmonico “is a very special player. He’s been in this situation before. He put his mind right and got a pitch and he did what he can do.”
It was Delmonico’s error at shortstop with two outs in the fifth inning, however, that allowed Houston (33-13) to tie the game.
“I told [Pfeifer] when I came back in the dugout, ‘let me bat one more time and I promise I’ll get it back for you,’” Delmonico said.
Pfeifer said he “was kinda gassed going into” Friday’s title game after firing eight innings two of the three previous days — complete-game five-hitter in a 4-0 win against Clarksville Tuesday, and one inning of clutch relief to hold off a late Collierville rally and win 6-5 Thursday.
“But the second wind came, the adrenaline was pumping, everything was feeling good,” he added.
But a roughly 90-minute rain delay after two-and-half innings was yet another challenge for Pfeifer.
“It was new,” the junior lefty said about dealing with the delay. “I actually felt better after the rain delay than before. I kept the arm warm, sat on the bus talking to the guys. Warmed up about 20 minutes” before the restart.
David Allen, FHS senior centerfielder, joined Delmonico and Tyler Noland, senior right fielder, as three Admirals with two hits each Friday.
Noland’s two-out single to right field in the FHS second inning set the stage for yet another Ads senior outfielder, left fielder Ryan Montalbano.
After Noland appeared to be picked off but beat a low throw to second base from HHS first baseman Taylor Pittman, Montalbano’s single down the right field line easily scored Noland.
“Tyler Noland and Ryan Montalbano were outstanding,” said Buckner, winning his first-ever state crown as a head coach in his first season at FHS. “I told Tyler before the game I thought he was going to have a big game. … He had some good swings.
“David’s played great all year,” Buckner added.
Houston lefty starter Conlon Palo proved mostly successful in changing speeds and keeping many FHS batters off balance. He finished allowing six hits, two earned runs, one walk with eight strikeouts.
His first and only walk of the game, a one-out free pass to FHS freshman designated hitter Cameron Strickland in the bottom of the seventh, brought Mustangs reliever Thomas Beamish into the game.
Following a controversial force out at second base on an Allen grounder — Buckner contending the second baseman came off the bag on the force out of Strickland — Delmonico battled back from a one-ball, two-strike count to blast his history-making home run.
