BRISTOL, Tenn. — Tennessee High’s baseball team was ranked No. 1 in the state and had defeated David Crockett by a combined score of 41-12 while winning all three meetings this season.
But the Vikings didn’t see pitcher Mason Grindstaff until Sunday, and man, did he turn the tide.
The senior left-hander pitched five no-hit innings, and the Pioneers held on to stun the Vikings 4-2 in the losers’ bracket final of the District 1-3A tournament at Tod Houston Field.
Crockett (17-13) secured a region berth with the victory — its first since Clinton Freeman was the ace in 2010 — and will visit Elizabethton Monday in the district championship.
Grindstaff, a left-hander with plus stuff and the interest of Walters State, had to miss his junior season due to injury.
“He didn’t get to throw last year,” Crockett sixth-year head coach Spencer Street said, “and to have him be able to come out this year and have that opportunity — he battled some shoulder stuff early in the year, got it taken care of — I’m so proud of him.”
Defeating the state’s top-ranked team and undefeated Upper Lakes Conference regular season champion was a thrill for the Pioneers pitcher. So was pitching five no-hit frames.
But everything was a distant second to Grindstaff’s primary reward.
“Honestly, that I get another game with my brothers this year (means the most),” Grindstaff said. “Looking back and seeing all them so happy, it feels like the world to me. I knew we could come out and do it. We just had to have our hopes up and stay behind each other, and we did that today.”
Grindstaff threw 111 pitches (unofficial) before being lifted after the fifth. Connor Hendrix got the save with two shutout innings.
“I’m proud of Connor Hendrix,” Street said. “He didn’t have his best stuff today, but he did enough to get six outs.”
Crockett scored two runs in the first. Ronnie Hall was hit by a pitch on the game’s first offering from Jimmy Phipps. Marcus Greenway followed with a single, and A.J. Ford and Nate Walters added tone-setting back-to-back RBI singles with one out.
“They’ve done it all year,” Street said. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Hendrix was hit by a pitch to lead off the second, and scored to make it 3-0 on Hall’s sacrifice fly.
Tennessee High (24-6) scored a run in the second when Chandler Myers was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The Vikings got within 3-2 in the fifth when Gage Graziano scored on a wild pitch.
Crockett added an insurance run in the seventh. Ford lined a one-out double to right-center field after the Vikings failed to catch a pop-foul.
“When you give a good hitter another chance — we’re fortunate that he got another chance,” Street said. “And again, he’s been so consistent all year. I’m just very proud of him.”
Nate Walters followed with a line single to right, and courtesy runner Kaden Lyle scored on Ayden Mullikin’s bad-hop single.
Tennessee High coach Preston Roberts was ejected in the seventh when Ashton Leonard was called out on strikes by plate umpire Dale Ford.
“I had no problem with questioning the call. I’ll put it that way,” Roberts said.
The Vikings skipper was quick to credit Grindstaff.
“He was effective,” Roberts said. “I don’t even want to say effectively wild, because when he needed to make pitches, he made pitches, right. I know he walked some guys. We had base-runners on. We scored a couple of runs and didn’t even have a hit. But when he needed to make pitches it seemed like he always found a way.”
Crockett and Elizabethton have played four times this season – all with one-run outcomes. The Cyclones have won three of those, including one in the first round of the district.
“We’re not done,” Street said. “We’ve got some unsettled business to go try and finish, and I know they’re pumped up about that. But to make an appearance in the region — it’s what you play the first game for. You can’t go anywhere else without getting there.”