Snake bitten once again…Nolensville takes advantage of ruling to pull off 2-1 win over Cyclones
Published 8:21 am Thursday, May 23, 2019
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cyclone starting pitcher Matthew Dailey fires a pitch toward home plate.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton’s Evan Carter watches a pitch goes by at the knees.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cyclone pitching coach Reid Casey visits with starting pitcher Matthew Dailey and catcher Karson Dillard.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cyclone head coach Ryan Presnell argues his case with the home plate and first base umpires but to no avail. The ruling eventually played into Nolensville winning the game.
MURFREESBORO— When baseball gets to the state level, a game with such big implications shouldn’t be affected by the indecisiveness by those who are charged to make sure the game’s rules are correctly enforced.
That, however, turned out to be the case on Tuesday evening at Blackman High School when the Elizabethton Cyclones and Nolensville Knights squared off in the first game of the tournament for both teams that turned out to be heart-stopping, 2-1 win in seven innings for the Knights who overcame an earlier 1-0 Cyclone lead.
For the second time in two weeks, an umpire ruling at home plate created a door to be opened for the win when a check-swing by Nolensville Jackson Hill appeared to be fouled off but the home plate umpire made no call and the first base umpire threw his hands up in the air to indicate a foul ball.
After a lengthy discussion between Elizabethton head coach Ryan Presnell and the two umpires and eventually joined by the third base umpire, the umpires allowed the runner to stay at first base and Hill would eventually play into the game-winning run for Nolensville.
The Cyclones broke out front first in the top of the third inning when Ashton Wilson reached on an error by the Knights third baseman.
Wilson took second on the same error. Left fielder Nico Wilson followed with a bunt that resulted in a second error by the Nolensville pitcher allowing Wilson to come around and score.
The Cyclones worked out of trouble in the fifth and sixth innings to hold tightly to the slim 1-0 advantage heading into the bottom of the seventh inning after Lawson Wagner and Ashley launched two deep bombs in the top of the seventh that were tracked down by the Knights left fielder to hold the Cyclones scoreless.
The eventful bottom of the seventh started off with a dropped third strike to Nolensville Aiden Young allowing Young to reach first base safely.
Tyler Smith’s sacrifice bunt moved Young up a bag with one out. That’s when the circus kicked off in full force as Hill advanced to first on the no-call by the home plate umpire.
Carson Robble dribbled a pitch back to relief pitcher Wagner who threw to third to nab Young and Matthew Dailey threw across the diamond to try and get the double play on Robble.
Cyclone first baseman Cooper Tipton was reaching for the ball when Robble ran over top of Tipton allowing the ball to go to the fence.
Tipton quickly recovered and threw back across the diamond to Dailey at third attempting to get Hill but the ball sailed high over Dailey’s head and Hill dashed home for the winning run.
Both starting pitchers had a solid effort from the mound as Dailey tossed 6 1/3 of an inning allowing five hits, two runs, with four walks and six strikeouts.
Nolensville Reece Milam was equally effective working the complete game allowing only the one run on two Cyclone hits. Milam walked two and struck out six Cyclones as well.
Elizabethton’s Evan Carter and Wilson accounted for the game’s only two base hits for the Cyclones.
Smith went 2-for-3 to lead Nolensville at the plate.
Presnell summed up the last two innings of the game as tough.
“We dealt with as much adversity as we could and it just got to the point that in championship baseball you have to make every play that you can,” stated Presnell. “We weren’t able to make the plays there at the end.
“I will say they were very advanced baseball plays and our guys can do that. You look at that first and third situation and we executed perfectly again. We just blinked there in the end and it cost us a baseball game.
“I am proud of these guys,” Presnell continued. “What a tough situation to be in for Lawson Wagner who goes in and does the best he can. Matthew Dailey gives us 6 1/3 innings of super baseball.
“We did so many things good. When you play state championship baseball, there is going to be a razor-thin margin if you want to win it.”
The Cyclones will be playing in an elimination game on Wednesday morning against Pigeon Forge, a 6-3 loser to Covington, at 10 am CST (11 am EST).
With a win, the Cyclones will be playing a second game on Wednesday at 5pm CST (6 pm EST) against the loser of the Covington-Nolensville contest.
A loss would bring Elizabethton’s season to an end.
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TSSAA Spring Fling Class AA Baseball Championships
Nolensville, 2-1
Elizabethton 001 000 00 – 1 2 3
Nolensville 000 000 11 – 2 5 2
WP: Milam. LP: Dailey.
