MURFREESBORO — The best Cleveland High baseball season in 15 years came to a tough close Friday, once again falling to Siegel in extra innings in the TSSAA Sectional deciding game.
After falling 3-2 in nine innings in Thursday's best-of-3 series opener, the 10th-ranked Stars rallied for a game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh before adding another in the eighth for a 5-4 victory.
"This series we played tough hard nose baseball just came up a little short," related Blue Raider head coach Brent Tucker who turned around the program that only had two winning seasons and played in just four District 5 semifinals in the last 13 years.
After 28 years as a highly-respected coach in Georgia, this was Tucker's first season on Raider Drive.
"2024 Season comes to close. With 24 Wins. District (5-4A) regular season championship, district tournament championship, region (3-4A) runner-up finish. Didn't go our way this week but what a great season it was. Thank you Raider Nation for your support," he posted online.
Region 4 champion Siegel (31-12) advances to its fourth TSSAA State Championships, battling fourth-ranked Clarksville (38-9) in Tuesday's opener.
Siegel is in the same end of the bracket that features top-ranked Farragut (36-5) battling No. 24 Beech (25-16).
The other end of the bracket has 17th-ranked Bradley Central facing second-ranked Arlington (31-5), plus 12th-ranked Nolensville (31-9) and Oak Ridge (27-14-1).
Siegel opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first on back-to-back one-out hits with a pair of stolen bases in between.
Cleveland bounced back to take the lead when seniors Jack McBrayer and Andrew Wenger walked and singled to open the bottom of the second.
After a pair of strikeouts, senior Evan Liner drew a base on balls to load the sacks before sophomore Collin Stuart laced a two-out single to plate a pair of runs.
Five straight free passes — Tennessee Wesleyan signee Nolan Copeland was "plunked" before Tusculum commit Cutter Womack, McBrayer, Wenger and River Briggs all walked — in the bottom of the third allowed the Raiders to push their edge to 4-1.
Siegel was able to pull back within a run in the top of the fourth when with two outs, consecutive hits and two free passes plated a piar of runs for the hosts.
After a pair of scoreless frames, Will Horn evened the score with a solo blast to open the top fo the seventh to pull the Stars even and force the extra inning.
Siegel pulled out the victory by opening the top of the eighth with a single, a sac bunt and another single.
The Raider got Copeland on with a walk in the bottom of the inning but were unable to move him around.
Cleveland knocked five hits in the contest with Virginia Tech signee Mycah Jordan stroking a double, while Womack, Wenger, sophomore Caden Tippens and Stuart each singled.
A trio of Raider hurler gave up a dozen free passes, while the defense committed a pair of errors.
Game Summary
TSSAA Sectionals
Game 2
best-of-3
Friday, May 17
at Murfreesboro
Siegel 100 200 11 — 5 11 0
Cleveland 022 000 00 — 4 5 2
WP: C Patterson. LP: Evan Liner. HR: Will Horn. 2B: Mycah Jordan (C). RBI: T Baker 2, Layne Akers, Gabriel Hamrick, Horn (S); Collin Stuart 2, River Briggs, Andrew Wenger (C). Records: Siegel 31-12; Cleveland 24-14.
