justafanman22

Bottom line is smyrna ran out of pitching and Houston didn't. Anyone with any sense that watched the two games will tell you that Friday night is more indicative of the matchup. If Smyrna and houston line -up and each throws their ace...Smyrna wins. Smyrna beat their ace with their #2. Bottom line. Great year Smyrna. Good luck to South Doyle. They are clearly the best team in this half of the bracket. The head coach from Houston needs to remember that he doesn't get in the batter's box. If he acts like he did last night against the wrong opposing coach, one of his players could be leaving the field on a stretcher. If I am the coach, and another coach did that to my players, the next kid up is getting beaned. Its about the kids, and that coach was the instigator of a fight with a sophomore player on the other team. That is bush. And if you wanna act all big and tough like that, then walk off the field like a man, instead of calling for a police escort. what a pansy.

Bradley central won 10-2

Bottom line is SD is good...Smyrna is good. It will be a great game...a low-scoring game. I am with Wing-Man. Too close to call.

RBI double by Egerton in the 1st. Solo homer by Sonny in the 3rd.

On behalf of Smyrna I would just like to say that district 9AAA was absolutely amazing this year. There was more talent in the district this year than I have seen in quite some time. Beech was strong as always with excellent pitching and a right fielder that can flat out play. Mt Juliet had as dominant of a pitching staff as we may see for a while. Gallatin and Hendersonville both gave Smyrna some terrific games. While Sonny was the obvious district player of the year choice, there are so many other tremendously gifted players in this district. The talent is much greater than it was when I played in this district about 10 years ago. I think the Bulldogs are ready to take on some folks at the Fling this week because of the strength of our district. We appreciate all the support and thank you all for your hospitality over the past few years. The reason I go to the Smyrna games is graduating this year and I am tremendously thankful that he had the opportunity to play against such great competition for the past 4 years. Also, even though I am not in the club (and NEVER would be), thanks for putting up with the "dog pound" this year. They mean well, but they are a little crazy.

Out of pure specualtion, I would say Delmonico would have to have offered him a scholarship because he is at worst Top 50 in the Nation. Then again, he committed early so he may not have had the opportunity to do so.

Delmonico has been at at least 5 of Sonny's games this year...as has Kentucky, Auburn, Georgia...and the list goes on and on. I don't think he will ever play a position in college because he lacks certain defensive skills, but he could definitely...definitely...DH. He is hitting around .470 with 9 homers. It will be interesting to see how he hits next year without Egerton hitting behind him.

he did definitely "pitch" tonight. he let his defense work and they did well behind him. From the gun I was watching he was a consistent 89-91. That is amazing for most..but well short of the typical Sonny Gray stuff. but he pitched a smart game and he deserves a lot of credit for pitching within himself.

I saw the game and Sonny had his B minus stuff at best. If you saw him in Clarksville...that was his A stuff. I have watched him all year and his stuff suffered on 3 days rest. That being said...he still dominated Overton. And that was an error in the first inning for sure because the throw was in the dugout by the time that kid got to first.

The past week overton saw antioch...no pitching...and franklin...little pitching. franklin has a strong offense to balance out there lack of superior pitching and they are a good overall team. the best pitcher in overton's district is francescon at ravenwood. johnson from overton is strong too. that being said after those two the district pitching is pretty thin. this is who Smyrna has seen. Hill, Cotham, Boston, frey (twice), Harper from clarksville...and they beat them all except Boston. Smyrna has gotten everybody's ace all through the district except for against mt juliet, who i think has 3 aces. and they saw all 3 of them. Sonny can be beaten....if he has an off day. it can very easily happen. but the bottom line is that if Sonny has his A game, Overton won't get a runner past 2nd base. If he has his B game...Smyrna still wins. overton had better hope for the C or worse.

"good wood" is a figure of speech....geez. have none of you guys ever actually played baseball or even been around it. jk. you hear that phrase all the time no matter if they use aluminum or what.

In a ptiching match-up it comes down to who hits the best. I like Smyrna because they have faced the Clarksville ace and Mt Juliet's Cotham. Both of those are above average high school pitchers. I don't know who Overton has senn but Smyrna's bats are coming with some confidence after beating Mt Juliet. Also, I don't care who the pitcher is. Gray and Egerton are both gonna get solid wood on the ball at least once or twice in the game. Those kids can hit. The rest of the Bulldogs line-up hit well against MJ. I don't know too much about Overton or their road to this game, but i doubt they have seen a pitcher in the tourney as good as either Ryne Harper or Josh Cotham.

Mt Juliet's only run was unearned and scored on a passed ball. Then again 2 Smyrna runners scored on passed balls in the 7th. Good game. Rhoads looked strong. Cotham did too, until the 7th and he ran out of gas.

If Gray and Hill start against Overton and Franklin......I would still say decidedly better. Both can be be beaten and may be beaten. But neither Franklin or Overton can match up with those two.

who cares...it is a seeding game. both are decidedly better than overton or franklin.

The run was actually considered earned as they gave Land credit for a hit. Personally, I don't agree with the official scorer (hard hit ball, but still an error) but that was the call.

Sonny had 18. Harper had 16. K's, that is.

Can you imagine playing in the Rossview-Clarksville game? What a thought. If you lose the game you have to go and face Hill at Mt Juliet. Don't want that. But if you win, your grand prize is a date with Sonny Gray and the Bulldogs. At least you can make some concession money.

Congrats to Mt Juliet. They were the obvious better team last night. Smyrna left too many men on base. Mt Juliet deserved it. They did what they had to do. A couple of observations.... 1) I sat right behind home plate last night and the home plate umpire was awful...for both teams. This is coming from an umpire. A strike one inning would be a ball the next. He twice called strikes on balls that were in the dirt (one for each team). He could not have been worse with his strike zone. I hope that both teams see much better umpiring from here on out as the next few weeks are huge. Mt Juliet made the adjustment and went to the plate aggressive. Smyrna did not. They took way too many pitches and called 3rd strikes. 2) Smyrna's catcher is going to have to step up. Too many unblocked balls.

I was at the Smyrna game against Hendersonville the other night as well. I thought they played lackluster at best. Hendersonville was so tired and Smyrna should have beaten them by 12 in 5 innings. Instead they got an early lead and just kinda coasted. They could have saved some pitching innings as well. The kid from Hendersonville that shut Smyrna down for 5 innings was throwing about 52 mph. I know it is hard to adjust sometimes but after one trip through the line-up they should have been smashing that kid. They won, that is the bottom line, but they didn't play as well as they can. And they better play up to their level from here on out.

I agree. Don't make your programs look bad. Both have good histories. Farragut's is better in the sort-term. I have seen both Farragut and DB, as well as some of the teams that came in for the Rutherford County tourney (ie Bearden), and it doesn't matter who comes out from over there. None of those teams has the pitching to contend with the Middle Tennessee teams. Mount Juliet, Smyrna, and Oakland all have far superior pitching. Beech has been eliminated and they had some awesome pitching. Ravenwood has a great pitcher (i don't know if they have been eliminated or not, but i think so). Whoever makes it to the Spring Fling from the East is going to see some amazing pitching.

In interpreting the rule, there are 2 key phrases. "ordinary effort" and my rule book states "umpire's discretion". It is a judgement call and therefore is unprotestable. Having umpired for many years the rule is typically used when an infielder will routinely make the play. Most umpires use the term "camped" when determining whether it should be called or not. If an infielder is "camped" TSSAA typically trains the ump to call the IFR at that point. On a ball into shallow left in which neither player is "camped", the IFR cannot be called. I don't know any of these kids but I know that both schools have solid programs. With that being said, a fair and unbiased umpire will never assume that a play is going to be made until the player is "camped" as this is the key for the player establishing "ordinary effort". I remember one instance in a high school game I was watching when I saw a shallow pop-up where the umpire immediately called the IFR. As the shortstop drifted back into LF he tripped and fell flat on his face and the ball landed 15 feet to his right. The batter was out because the umpire had prematurely made the call...but he had to stand by his call. I can say that in some cases these calls can cost a team heavily. I know this had to be hard for the boys from Forrest. However, from the accounts posted, it appears the umpire made the correct call.

It makes no sense....this is a huge year for HS baseball in the County. Riverdale, Blackman, and Siegel are all above average. Oakland and Smyrna are in the top 5 in the state. Middle tennessee Christian School is even having an outstanding year. Still no coverage. Just think about the kids in rutherford county who are signing scholarships and moving on to a higher level baseball. The DNJ has "dropped the ball" on the best season of Rutherford County Baseball since both Riverdale and LaVergne made the Spring Fling.

I remember Beech being a great place to play...when I was pitching. When you're in that batter's box though, you're cursing everyone in Sumner County for building such a "geometrically- challenged" field.

it is hard to compare players that project as pitchers against those that project as hitters. just because hitters are more common and there is less of a premium placed on hitting. all scouts tend to drool a little more over pitchers. i don't know why, it just happens that way. that is why a strong pitcher will get drafted over a strong hitter. when you are saying best overall player, it is dificult because the comparison criteria are not unified.