The Rebels celebrate their Region 1-AA championship win over the Blue Devils in Erwin on Wednesday. Sullivan South will host Pigeon Forge in the sectional round while Unicoi County will visit Gibbs.
Brody Ratliff rounds the bases after launching a towering home run in the third inning.
Cheryl Gray
The Rebels celebrate their Region 1-AA championship win over the Blue Devils in Erwin on Wednesday. Sullivan South will host Pigeon Forge in the sectional round while Unicoi County will visit Gibbs.
Cheryl Gray
Marshall Buchanan pitched a complete game for South in his second start of the season. He gave up seven hits and struck out two.
ERWIN — Sullivan South will host one more baseball game in program history as the Rebels won the Region 1-AA championship Wednesday with a 9-4 win at Unicoi County.
South (24-7) will host Pigeon Forge while Unicoi County will travel to Gibbs. Gibbs was a 3-1 winner over Pigeon Forge Wednesday in the Region 2-AA title tilt.
“I think it’s big. We talked a little about it before the game,” an emotional Rebels coach Anthony Richardson said about one more home game for his team.
It was déjà vu all over again for Sullivan South. The last Region 1-AA title for the Rebels was in 2015 when they won 13-1 at Unicoi County. That year the Rebels’ season ended at the Spring Fling in Murfreesboro.
On Wednesday, South jumped in front with some opening inning momentum. Drew Hoover sent a single into right center field followed by a sharp double from Sean Reed to the fence on the same line. The ball was misplayed, which allowed Hoover to come home. After a Marshall Buchanan single to left, Eli Jennings laid down an RBI bunt single. Will Harris then sent a ball back up the middle for an RBI single. Cody Pugh flipped the lineup with a sharp two-run and two-out single to left.
“They were swinging it the whole game with hard hit balls all over the field,” Unicoi County coach Chad Gillis said. “It wasn’t our night. We struck out just two times and put the ball in play. They made some great plays. Our guys battled. I can go home Wednesday after a loss and know we still have a sectional game to play.”
Brody Ratliff led off the Rebels’ half of the third inning with a towering home run out to left center. Reed added a two-run single up the middle to tack on some insurance scores.
The Blue Devils posted a run in the third with an RBI single from Valentin Batrez. His hit to right field allowed Gavyn Sawyer to score after he reached on an error then moved up on a wild pitch. Batrez added a seventh-inning hit for a 2-for-4 performance.
The winning side’s final run came in the sixth inning. Jackson Dean doubled to the gap in left center and Harris drove him in.
Sean Reed had three of the Rebels’ 15 hits. Hoover, Buchanan, Jennings, Dean and Harris had two hits apiece.
The Blue Devils did not go away quietly in their half of the seventh inning. Lucas Slagle reached on a fielder’s choice, which allowed Brayden Hendrickson to score. Slagle later scored on a single by Chris Chavez. Kaleb Metcalf was also a run scorer on that single. Chavez had a pair of hits in the contest.
Buchanan made his second start of the season on the mound and the junior scattered seven hits. He struck out a pair of Blue Devils in the complete game.
“He came out and threw pretty dang good so I’m pretty proud of him,” Richardson said about Buchanan’s outing. “He’s probably one of the hardest workers on the team we have. He puts in the extra work and tonight was a reward for that.”
Kaleb Metcalf started on the mound for the Blue Devils and went an inning-plus with five earned runs on eight hits.
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