Peabody baseball never quit after early loss

MURFREESBORO — After a loss on Tuesday, the Trenton Peabody baseball team had its back against a wall.

One more loss and the Golden Tide were heading home.

But this Peabody team fought all the way back to within two runs of making the Class A state championship.

"We talk about it all the time about having a warrior mentality and never giving up,"  coach Todd Lumley said. "You just never know. When you have kids that never give up, you have a chance to be pretty good."

After two wins on Wednesday, including two runs in the top of seventh for one of them, Peabody got a rematch with Goodpasture.

The Golden Tide forced a second semifinal game with Goodpasture, and that meant that the Cougars couldn't save Wyatt Blessing, a Class A Mr. Baseball finalist, for the state championship game.

"It just shows the resiliency of this team," Peabody junior Hunter Hudson said. "We have great leaders. Ethan (Richardson), Will (Pickard), William (Woods) and Cade (Roberts)  are the best that you can get. We are young. We just wanted to fight."

Peabody went with 5-foot-6 freshman Eli Hammonds to pitch against the Mr. Baseball finalist, but there was still no worry in the eyes in Peabody.

"I hate that you have to put a freshman that hasn't pitched in a long time on the mound," Lumley said. "We got in a bind when we lost that first time to them. We don't make excuses. We gave ourselves a chance to win it, and that is all that you can ask."

Hudson said that he was ready for anything that Goodpasture threw against him.

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"To be the best, you got to beat the best," Hudson said. "We wanted to beat their best, but we just came up a little short."

That no-quit attitude that the Golden Tide showed all week started with the seniors — Richardson, Pickard, Woods and Roberts.

"I told the underclassmen that there is no excuse; they should positively lead because they showed you the right way to do it," Lumley said. "Every team is going to have leadership. The question is whether the leadership is going to be positive or negative."

Reach Michael Odom at michodom@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael.