The charter bus carrying the Greenville, S.C., baseball team got stuck in the mud behind Central’s baseball field, but the harried driver was no worse off than the team he was hauling.
The Red Raiders ended a good weekend on a sour note after running into a hot-hitting Bradley Central team that finished off a 60-run Pounder Invitational tournament with an 11-1 decision.
“Offensively, it’s the same that we have been doing (with) hitters one through nine. Twelve hits is a pretty good job,” said Bradley Central coach Travis Adams. “Greenville had some chances, but when you get out to those leads in a tournament and everybody has played five or six games it’s hard to catch up.”
Greenville entered the championship undefeated with an unbeaten tournament record after knocking off Hixson 5-1 in a semifinal at Hixson. Bradley beat Cleveland 12-4 in the other semifinal.
By the third inning of the final, though, the Red Raiders had fallen behind 7-0 and were reduced to serving up freshmen pitchers.
The Bears scored a pair in the bottom of the first and extended the lead to 6 after two innings, giving first-time starting varsity pitcher Tyler Cross some breathing room. He responded by going six innings and giving up just one run — a homer by Greenville leadoff man Mathew Roberts.
Cross became the third Bear to win his first outing in less than a week, joining Cole Brand and Cory Cabrera.
“It’s a pleasant surprise,” Adams said of the pitching staff. “I held my breath a couple of times, but these guys are starting to earn some trust.”
Bradley actually scored 64 runs in six games and improved to 11-3. The hitting has been just short of astounding, and on Sunday it was leadoff man Jon Clinard, an Austin Peay signee, who provided much of the offense. The shortstop had two hits in three trips including a three-run homer and finished with five RBIs.
“Jon is a great situational hitter. He gets the job done at the top of the order,” Adams said. “Defensively he plays short and second and he pitches. He’s the type player every coach wants.”
Clinard’s home run broke the game open in the second, but four of the Bears had multi-hit games including a 3-for-4 outing from Zach Roberts and two hits each from Taylor Bryant and Lance Geren. All but one of the Bears had at least one hit.
“Twelve hits in a championship game — that’s what I’d call a team effort,” Clinard said.
The beneficiary was Cross, who scattered four hits, struck out three and gave up no walks.
“I think these weekend proved that we have (pitching depth),” Clinard said. “Tyler is not necessarily one of the top pitchers, but he threw a good game.”
Bradley returns to District 5-AAA play today, beginning a home-and-home series at Rhea County. They’ll host the Golden Eagles on Tuesday night.
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 ...
