Photo by Liz Bush Shanks
Story by Noah McKay
The Upperman Bees advanced to the Class 3A baseball sectional round in an 8-6 victory over Lawrence County in the Region 4/3A tournament on Saturday in Tullahoma.
The Bees, who fell to Tullahoma earlier in the day forcing the elimination game, trailed 5-1 before rattling off seven straight runs and getting a strong performance on the mound by Alec Wilson to secure the victory.
“We played well enough to get to the region championship game, and we had some guys play well but we faced an opponent who played well at home,” said UHS head coach Wes Shanks. “We weren’t out of it. That was the message. Lawrence County is a solid ball club. We did the little things right and now we get to move on.”
After mustering just three hits in the first game against Tullahoma, the Bees struck first on a solo home run by Caden Shanks to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Lawrence County answered with five runs in the top of the second to make it 5-1. The Bees, who were looking for their third straight substate appearance, then turned to Wilson on the mound. He answered by throwing five innings and allowing one unearned run on three hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
“Man… Alec Wilson,” said coach Shanks. “I can’t speak any higher of him. He came in during a big moment and shut them down. Can’t speak enough on how well he did during this ballgame”
Offensively, the Bees struck for three runs in the third on an RBI by Chris Wirsing and capitalizing on a LCHS error.
Carson Shupe tied the game in the fourth with an RBI single in the fourth. Evan Huddleston’s RBI single gave the Bees the lead in the fifth, then UHS brought two more runs across.
A seventh-inning rally attempt by the Wildcats fell short as Wilson forced a pop out to secure the victory for Upperman.
Offensively Shanks and Wirsing each rallied two RBIs while Shupe, Huddleston and Rookie Allison each added one.
Wilson earned the victory on the mound.
“We got timely hits,” said coach Shanks. “We finally got over the hump and won the ballgame. There’s a lot of guys I can toot the horn of”
The Bees (19-15) will take on Signal Mountain (26-8) in a best-of-three series starting on Wednesday at 5 p.m. CT. The games will be streamed live on the Frontier Chevrolet UCR Media Network.
“There’s only 16 teams left, but I like our chances” said coach Shanks.