Ads advance to sectionals this week
While those two terms are often overused in sports, they offer a perfect summation of the Farragut baseball program.
Excluding the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, the Admirals have booked 18 straight trips to the sectional round of the TSSAA state playoffs. The latest one was solidified on Saturday, May 9, as FHS bounced back from an 8-4 loss to Oak Ridge to defeat Halls 13-3.
With the win, FHS will travel to Science Hill to play in a Class 4A sectional series this Wednesday and Thursday, May 13-14.
But to reach this point, the Ads had to check off yet another mark in their history.
“I think it starts with the players,” head coach Garrett Copeland said. “They’re the ones who have the success, and we try to do simple really well. Hit the ball hard on the field, make the defensive plays and the players buy in and work really hard from August. The success is really the fruit of their labor and the work that is put in behind the scenes.”
Perhaps no player has epitomized that approach more than Travis Brummitt Jr. On Saturday, the Pellissippi State signee and Class 4A Mr. Baseball finalist went 3-for-4 at the plate, having already hit a homer in his first at-bat against the same team in the region opener the previous day.
He also pitched all six innings, dealing six strikeouts while scattering five hits and three runs.
“He’s a great player,” Copeland said. “I’m really proud of the success he’s had. He’s worked really hard to get to where he’s at, and he’s one of our main pieces. We’re lucky to have him.”
Copeland dug further into what has made Brummitt so good at the plate, where he will often use his long-limbed features to his advantage.
“He’s always been a fundamental player ever since he came to us,” Copeland said. “But he’s matured and gotten stronger and grown up; his skills have really been showcased.
“He has one of the best disciplines of the strike zone on our team, and he just doesn’t chase balls out of the strike zone. He doesn’t strike out very often.”
To be fair, though, neither do the rest of the Ads’ batters. FHS went 16-for-33 as a team against Halls Saturday, bouncing back from an 8-4 loss to Oak Ridge earlier that day in the region championship.
They also stacked two runs in each of the first two innings Friday, going 6-for-21 as a team while Cash Schroeder scattered four hits, a run and two walks with six strikeouts in a complete game.
That outing allowed Farragut to better utilize its pitching the rest of the weekend with four Admirals taking the mound against the Wildcats — only for Brummitt to step on the hill that afternoon.
The Ads will look for a similar approach this week, as they travel up I-81 and hope to return with yet another trip to Murfreesboro.
