Tharptown ends PC’s streak
Tharptown’s varsity baseball team celebrates its victory in the Franklin County Baseball Tournament after ending Phil Campbell’s 15-year reign as champions with a 5-3 victory. Team members include Kelby Hallmark, William Washington, Nick Ling, Brandon Cothrum, Timothy Bryant, Wade Berryman, Justin Britnell and Brand Kimbrough. Scpt Beard/FCT
THARPTOWN – With a 3-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning, Phil Campbell was three outs away from extending its streak of Franklin County Baseball Tournament titles to 16, but Tharptown was not ready to hand the title over yet.
Showing patience at the plate the Wildcats drew three consecutive walks to open the inning before Phil Campbell could retire the next two batters.
Facing a two-out bases loaded situation, Kelby Hallmark reached on an error to score one run before William Washington drove in the tying runs moments later.
The Bobcats could not score in the bottom of the seventh inning and Tharptown took advantage of the momentum swing when Wade Berryman drove in a pair of runs in the eighth inning to give the Wildcats their first Franklin County Baseball Tournament title with a 5-3 victory.
“It feels awesome,” said Brandon Cothrum the winning pitcher for Tharptown. “We didn’t think about how many they had won.”
Cothrum pitched eight innings, allowing three runs on three hits and striking out eight.
Phil Campbell jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cameron Harris scored on a sacrifice fly by Craig Saint.
Jordan Benford extended the lead when he scored on a sacrifice by Jake Dill in the third inning. The Bobcats added another run in the sixth.
“It was fading away quickly. I thought it was over,” Cothrum said. “(In the seventh inning) we realized we had to do something quickly.”
Tharptown’s chances of erasing a 3-0 deficit looked unlikely heading into the seventh. The Wildcats had six runners reach base through the first six innings, and none of them advanced past second base.
Berryman’s two-RBI double in the eighth was the only hit for Tharptown in the final two innings.
“It means a lot to me,” Berryman said. “I always wanted to be in that situation.”
Tharptown had been in position to capture a playoff spot last week, but a pair of losses to Vina ended those chances.
Tharptown coach Derek Ergle was worried about how his team would respond to those losses.
“When we lost to Vina and didn’t go to the playoffs, I thought we would have a hard time in the county tournament,” Ergle said. “I can’t believe it; 15 years and we’re the ones to beat them.”
Phil Campbell 9, Red Bay 4
Trailing 2-1 in the third inning, Phil Campbell’s Jordan Benford and Cameron Harris scored to give the Bobcats a lead they would not give up on their way to a 9-4 victory in the semifinals of the Franklin County Baseball Tournament.
The Bobcats added one run in the fifth, three runs in the sixth and two runs in the seventh inning.
Red Bay’s Justin Roberts hit a solo homer in the Tigers in the fifth while Austin Thorn doubled in the sixth and scored on a sacrifce by Bradley Patterson.
Tharptown 10, Vina 6
With the Red Devils down 3-0 in the fourth inning, Vina’s Patrick White hit a solo home run to spark the Red Devil offense.
Channing added a run later in the inning and Nick Schmittou doubled in the fifth inning and scored on a single by Clay Pierce to tie the game.
Tharptown responded in the bottom of the fifth with four runs to take control of the game. The Wildcats added three more runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 10-3.
Vina rallied in the seventh as the first three batters scored, but could not maintain the momentum.
