GREENEVILLE — Bryson Rowland was the right person to appear in the batter’s box for the Elizabethton Cyclones in the sixth inning after the postseason he has had.
Rowland knocked a triple to centerfield to bring in two runs to help give the Cyclones a 5-2 victory over the Volunteer Falcons in the first game of the Region 1-3A tournament at Pioneer Park on Friday.
The win places Elizabethton (15-17) in the Region 1-3A championship game for the first time since 2019.
“There at the end, we were able to do what we needed to do to get that championship bid,” Elizabethton head coach Jim Presnell said.
“Bryson came up absolutely huge. He was the MVP of the district tournament for a reason. That kid is a leader. He doesn’t just lead verbally, but he leads by execution. You saw that here today,” Presnell added.
Rowland finished the day going 3-for-4 at-bat with a triple, single and two RBI.
The win places Elizabethton (15-17) in the Region 1-3A championship game for the first time since 2019.
Elizabethton, the one seed out of District 1, will now face the one seed out of District 2, Greeneville (21-12), in the region title game on Saturday at Pioneer Park at Tusculum University with a noon first pitch.
Volunteer (15-17) drops to the elimination game on Saturday to face David Crockett (15-18). First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
Elizabethton pitcher Rhett Slagle pitched a complete game. The sophomore struck out 11 hitters and just allowed two hits.
“I had a lot of confidence with (Slagle) on the mound,” Presnell said.
Slagle stayed composed throughout, even during the pressure of the seventh inning as the Falcons pushed to get back into it.
With a couple of Volunteer runners on base, Gavin Hickernell smacked a single to drive one run in to apply that pressure. However, Hickernell was the last chance Slagle allowed the Falcons.
“Slagle had a tough at-bat there at the top of the sixth and flushed it pretty quickly as a sophomore,” Presnell said. “He has grown a lot — a lot of maturity out of him.”
Volunteer’s pitcher Austin Williams pitched six innings, struck out four and allowed eight hits.
Besides the frenzy in the sixth inning for Elizabethton, many frames were left empty.
The Cyclones left bases loaded in the second inning but struck back in a big way in their frame of the third. JD Davis put Elizabethton on the board with a double to left field to ring home Bryson Rowland.
A scoreless first four innings left Volunteer hungry for a run to tie the game. With bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning, Volunteer’s Blakely Broussard managed a sacrifice bunt for Brock Mowell to tie the game at 1-1.
“Whatever we have to do to prepare ourselves, we have to do it,” Volunteer head coach Josh Peterson said. “We have to take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time, and execute our game plan.
In the fifth inning, Rowland was walked home after bases were loaded to give Elizabethton the 2-1 edge entering the sixth. Rowland then provided the rest of the runs needed for the Cyclones to lock up the victory.
GREENEVILLE 4, DAVID CROCKETT 0
The Greeneville Greene Devils advanced to a third consecutive Region 1-3A Championship with the 4-0 victory over David Crockett Friday at Pioneer Park.
Greeneville did not need too much at Pioneer Park on Friday night to take down the David Crockett Pioneers, 4-0, in the first round of the Region 1-3A tournament.
“We’ve been in tight games all season,” Greeneville head coach Andy Phillips said. “We are in those kind of games because of some of the teams we play. We didn’t win them all, but we have been put into situations that we can handle now. It’s a matter of executing now.”
The shutout victory was led by winning pitcher Carson Quillen, who pitched a complete game. Quillen struck out seven and allowed five hits. His composure was the key component, according to Phillips.
“Carson was dealing,” Phillips said. “(Carson) will cruise, cruise, cruise, but then when he gets into those high-level pitches, he dials it up a notch.”
David Crockett’s pitcher Mason Grindstaff struck out six hitters, allowed five hits and three earned runs in the loss.
The Pioneers will look to stay alive against Volunteer tomorrow. Crockett head coach Spencer Street hopes his team is already prepared.
“My hope is that I don’t have to (get them ready),” Street said. “They are looking down the barrel of elimination now. I think they will be focused and ready to go. Volunteer is scrappy. I imagine it will be a dogfight.”
Grindstaff helped the Greene Devils out right away as he walked the first two hitters and a future wild pitch brought one of them home.
After a scoreless second and third innings, Greeneville’s Kobe Mundy hit a single to plate the lone run of the fourth. Kaine Ricker followed in the next inning with his hit right through the left field gap to score Carson Quillen for a 3-0 advantage after five.
Maddox Bishop finished off the scoring for the Greene Devils in the bottom of the sixth as he also nailed an RBI single, upping the lead to 4-0.