In his decade as Red Bank’s baseball coach, Bumper Reese’s Lions had never won a Hixson Wildcat Classic.
He’s hoping Sunday night’s championship game win in the tournament is an omen of things to come.
Red Bank improved to 4-1 and got Reese his first Wildcat championship trophy with a 6-4 victory over host Hixson.
“We bounced back, but we’re still not playing well,” Reese said. “We’re still making mistakes and I don’t like that, but I don’t want to peak in March either.”
The Lions rebounded from a five-error loss to Cleveland on Tuesday to win the rain-shortened Hixson tournament. They advanced to the final with an extra-innings, 9-8 win over Notre Dame before Hixson rallied from a 6-1 deficit to beat Soddy-Daisy for the first time in two years. The Wildcats scored a pair in the bottom of the seventh, the winner coming on a sacrifice fly from Colton Green.
Red Bank jumped ahead of Hixson immediately, plating a pair when winning pitcher Brandon Ward led off with a double and then came around on Corey Emery’s home run.
The Lions made it 3-0 on Jake Ledbetter’s third-inning single before Hixson got on the board on back-to-back singles from Brett McClure and Phillip Akridge.
Ward and Craig Barker had back-to-back singles to extend Red Bank’s lead to 5-1 and the Lions got their final run on a fifth-inning ground-out from Cody Lawson.
Andy Duncan doubled and came around to score on a wild pitch and the Wildcats got two more in the sixth on a walk to Duncan, singles from Josh Coppinger and Tyler Pack, an error and a single by Brett McClure.
However, reliever Alan Walden closed the door in the Wildcats’ last shot in the seventh.
The Wildcats rallied in their first game Sunday and almost pulled it off in the championship.
“I thought it was a productive day,” Wildcats coach Brian Bray said. “We had a lot of kids contribute. I think it proved to them that you never give up and that you keep competing. We have to cut down on the silly mistakes, but the mistakes we’re making are easily correctable.”
Red Bank made five errors against Notre Dame but played better defensively in the championship.
“The guys just need a lot of reps, but we’re going to give them a couple of days off and then get ready for the weekend,” Reese said.
The Lions will be hosting part of the Scenic City Classic Thursday through Saturday.
Ward Gossett is an assistant sports editor and writer for the Times Free Press. Ward has a long history in Chattanooga journalism. He actually wrote a bylined story for the Chattanooga News-Free Press as a third-grader. He Began working part-time there in 1968 and was hired full time in 1970. Ward now covers high school athletics, primarily football, wrestling and baseball and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling. Over a 40-year career, he has covered ...
