Baseball battles
Rivalries take center stage
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Farragut’s Mason Shelton (4) leaps with his Admiral teammates after hitting the second home run in as many at-bats for FHS on Monday, March 30. That hot start helped the Ads gain early momentum in a 7-6 win over Hardin Valley Academy. - Photos by Jake Nichols
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Bearden pitcher Grayson Wright (23) fires a pitch toward home plate on Wednesday, March 25, at Hardin Valley Academy. - Photos by Jake Nichols
As the calendar flips toward May, baseball teams across the state are looking to test themselves against top competition to prepare for the postseason.
While that has been the case for Farragut, Bearden and Hardin Valley, all three teams have taken part in recent rivalry matchups, as well, to ratchet things up even more.
Here’s a look at how things have unfolded lately.
Farragut 7, Hardin Valley 6
On Monday night, March 30, Farragut held off Hardin Valley 7-6 in a tense District 4-4A matchup.
Joey Ray took the win for FHS, fanning six with two straight to end HVA’s final threat in the bottom of the seventh. He also slammed the door in the bottom of the sixth when Hardin Valley had the tying run on third.
“Joey’s a competitor and will compete no matter the situation,” Admirals head coach Garrett Copeland said. “He went a little longer in relief than normal but he competed all night.”
The teams combined for four home runs in the first three innings — three from FHS and two by Zain Kureshi-Smith and Mason Shelton specifically on back-to-back pitches in the top of the second inning.
Aidan Flagg added another for the Admirals one inning later while Kenny Lane hammered one for the Hawks in the bottom half of the third.
The teams soon settled in, trading blows before HVA tied the score 6-6 in the bottom of the fifth. But Flagg knocked an RBI single a half-inning later, scoring Mason Shelton for what wound up being the winning run.
“I always tell them we have to stay even emotionally,” Copeland said. “These games are going to have highs and lows, but we have to stay even because at the end of the day, those single events don’t define the game.”
There was a bit of controversy in the second inning, as HVA looked to have tacked on a third run to tie the score. But it was wiped off, leaving Hawks coach Aaron Simmons to question the umpires after they made their ruling.
“It was a secondary hit, so it was still a live ball,” Simmons explained later. “Everybody moves up one base all of a sudden, except the guy going from third to home. And that’s not the right call on that. It changes the whole game plan.”
He noted that there were “other situations that hurt” the Hawks too, but reinforced the need to be ready to compete when the teams met again Tuesday, March 31.
Bearden 5, Hardin Valley 4
A week before that, March 25, Bearden took down HVA 5-4 in another back-and-
forth battle.
Finn Piper scored on a wild pitch in the top of the sixth, giving the Bulldogs a lead they would not relinquish after storming back from a 4-2 deficit.
Boone Piper led BHS with a 3-for-4 plate effort with one RBI, and Isaiah Allen added two hits on three at-bats with another RBI.
Grayson Wright took the win for BHS while Ethan Frederick came through with a save that saw five strikeouts, two with a runner on third in the bottom of the sixth to keep BHS at a one-run lead.
“The biggest thing was just to see them fight,” Bulldogs coach Dave Prichard said. “We’ve experienced a lot of success the last couple years, and these first couple weeks, we’ve struggled a little. I told them they could have packed it in, but they kept fighting. We know we’re playing a tough schedule, and the goal is to get better every day. I thought that was the first time we saw the offense really go a little bit, which was really encouraging.”
