Scotts Hill baseball wins school’s 1st state title

MURFREESBORO – No team from Scotts Hill has ever played for a TSSAA state championship, much less won one.

Scotts Hill was not considered the favorite heading into the Class A baseball tournament, but that didn’t matter to them.

The Lions came to Murfreesboro and won four straight games to claim the school’s first state championship with an 8-3 victory over Knoxville Grace at Reese Smith Jr. Field on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.

VIDEO: Scotts Hill wins Class A title

“These guys remain level-headed,” Scotts Hill coach Carl Harken said. “They always stay the course. We talk about playing our game whether we are up or down. The kids remain positive, and it has worked for us.”

Scotts Hill ends the season 26-11 after defeating the defending Class A state champion.

Grace scored 25 runs in its first three games of the state tournament, but the Scotts Hill defense along with the pitching of Colton McPeake didn’t allow the Rams to score many runs and left nine runners on base.

SH’s McPeake kept composure in big moment

“It is a blessing for my senior year to have the opportunity I got to end it this way,” Scotts Hill senior Kainan Maners said. “I just can’t even describe it.”

The Lions made sure to capitalize on its chances from the start. With an RBI triple from junior Evan Russell and a sacrifice fly by senior Junior Kimmel, Scotts Hill jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

“All of our bats started coming hot in the postseason,” Kimmel said. “We started playing as a team. I think we had a chip on our shoulder today. They were the defending state champs, but that was last year. Not this year. This year was for us.”

Russell and Kimmel along with Charlie Lowry went 2-for-3.

The lead gave the Lions confidence going forward against an experienced team.

“We talk about keeping the same approach no matter who is on the mound and that is to attack our pitches,” Harken said. “We aren’t worried about the count, just hitting our pitches. They did that all week long.”

With runs in the second and third innings, Grace tied the game up 2-2.

Momentum looked to be swinging with the Rams as they retired the first two Scotts Hill hitters, but a single by Kimmel along with two errors on throws allowed him to move to third base.

Junior Austin Branham brought him home with an RBI double.

“Throughout playing in our district, we played in a lot of close games,” Harken said. “The experience we gained from that really paid off in pressure situations. We thrive in these type of situations because we have great leadership with our seniors Junior Kimmel and Kainan Maners and anchored by our junior class with Even Russell, Drake Thompson, Austin Branham and Cody Carter.”

Scotts Hill kept its bats hot with two more runs in the fourth inning on back-to-back RBI singles by sophomore Hunter Beecham and Russell.

Grace continued to threaten with runners, but McPeake and his defense made the plays when it counted to keep runners away from home.

“We just cleaned up the little things and did the little things right in the postseason,” Maners said. “We picked each other up and played as a team.”

The Rams added a run in the sixth inning to cut Scotts Hill’s lead to 5-3, but the Lions added three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game away.

Sophomore Jonathan Alexander had an RBI single and two other runs scored on errors.

Scotts Hill wins Class A baseball title

Kimmel came into pitch the seventh and retired the three Grace batters in order.

“This is fantastic,” Kimmel said. “We have been competing that whole year, living it up with these wonderful young men. To win the state championship is everything.”

Michael Odom, 425-9754