CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A fabulous season ended Saturday for the Bradley Central baseball team with a 1-0 state sectional loss to Stewarts Creek.
As he went through preseason paces, coach Travis Adams didn't know what to expect from his Bears. After the back-to-back district wins against Soddy-Daisy early in the season, though, he knew they had the makings for success.
"We saw how the kids grew and how their confidence level grew," Adams said. "We saw in the Soddy-Daisy series that these guys were growing into it."
The Bears used that series as a springboard and wound up blitzing through District 5-AAA undefeated. They then won the district tournament and followed with the Region 3 championship, thus arriving in a host role for a Class AAA sectional.
However, it took just 95 minutes for visiting Stewarts Creek, the Region 4 runner-up, to derail the Bears' state tournament hopes. The Red Hawks did it with a run in the second inning and a tremendous pitching performance from Austin Steel.
Steel allowed no Bradley batter to advance past second base, and only three Bears managed that.
In scattering five hits, Steel struck out just three but issued no walks, which further handicapped the Bears' "play for one run at a time" philosophy.
"We try to create opportunities. People know what we're going to do. We just couldn't get that big two-out hit," Adams said. "Their guy was executing his pitches, and you have to tip your hat to him. We only hit a couple of balls hard all night."
The Red Hawks touched previously unbeaten Brandon Thompson, the District 5-AAA co-player of the year with fellow pitcher Gunnar Norwood, in the second inning for the only run he'd give up.
Daniel Freeman doubled and scored on a single to left field from Maddox Von Dohlen.
Freeman and Brandon Dial had five of the seven Stewarts Creek hits, Freeman going 3-for-3 and Dial 2-for-4.
Thompson had six strikeouts and two walks plus two hit batsmen.
"It's not a loss as far as pitching performance," Adams said. "That's one we should have won for him."
Thompson finished the year 10-1 and Norwood was 9-0.
"What those two did this year is phenomenal," Adams added.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.