WHITWELL, Tenn. -- After getting within one win of the program's first state tournament appearance, the Whitwell High School baseball team will have to wait at least one more day before potentially punching its ticket to next week's Spring Fling.
As gambles go, Whitwell coach Chad Billingsley's surprise plan to not throw senior ace Jacob McCurry in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader with Gordonsville to begin a TSSAA Class 1A best-of-three sectional series nearly hit the jackpot.
The Tigers cashed in on the roll of the dice by outlasting Gordonsville 2-1 in eight innings to win the opener, then carried a lead into the sixth inning of the second game before McCurry reached his pitch-count limit and had to be lifted.
That opened the door for Gordonsville to push three runs across the plate to claim a 4-2 win that forced a deciding third game, set for Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern.
"We still control our own destiny," Billingsley said. "If we're going to get off the island, we'll have to hit our way off. We just have to come out focused and ready to play. It's one game to get to where we've worked to be and wanted to be all season."
After six scoreless innings in the first game, the drama began in the seventh as Gordonsville manufactured a run in the top half and Whitwell answered in the bottom by scoring the tying run on a throwing error to first.
Junior right-hander Brayden Riley pitched into the seventh before McCurry came on to earn the win by finishing out the final two innings.
The series opener had a wild ending as Colin Beason led off with a single and pinch runner Xander Morgan advanced to second on Cayden Green's sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Riley hit a comebacker to the mound, but once the Gordonsville pitcher realized he couldn't beat the batter to the bag, he tossed the ball to first base late and Riley beat the throw. As Gordonsville players argued the call at first, Morgan rounded third and scored the winning run.
"That hustle to first just shows what kind of fight our kids have in them and how bad they wanted to win," Billingsley said. "Sometimes, to get to where you want to be you've got to have a break. That might have been the break we needed to help get us to the state tournament.
"That first game, getting that kind of work from Riley was huge. Pretty much everybody figured we'd throw Jacob in the first game, but I've got all the confidence in the world in Riley, and he came up huge. Now we just have to come back out and have some guys step up to get us where we want to be.
"I know the fight this group has and that's what I expect to see when we come back out."
Beason and Bennett Goforth had RBIs in the second game to help Whitwell build a 2-1 lead before Gordonsville rallied to force Thursday's decisive matchup with a state tournament spot on the line.
Contact Stephen Hargis at [email protected]