Bumper Reese

Unfortunately for the Red Bank High School baseball team, coach Bumper Reese will keep his mustache and left fielder Jake Ledbetter will buzz his Mohawk before today’s graduation ceremonies.

The Lions’ bid for their first state baseball tournament appearance fell short Friday, 9-3 to visiting Lincoln County, the Region 4-AAA runner-up.

Reese’s wife, Paula, has known him for 23 years and they have been married for 18. She had never seen him without a mustache but would have if the Lions had won, because he’d promised to let the team shave it if they won the sectional.

The Ledbetter household had been in a minor uproar because his mom wanted the Mohawk gone before he walked across the stage. He was balking if Red Bank had won and apparently had his father’s backing.

It was one of those days for Red Bank High, which had 40 students show up in dress-code-violation blue jeans and had a streaker through the halls Friday morning and a food fight at lunch.

“Lincoln County beat us in every aspect of the game. They outhit us, they outpitched us and they out-defensed us,” Reese said. “I told the kids after the game that Lincoln County just wanted it more than we did.”

Falcons pitcher Matt Sharpe, throwing for the first time this year on less than seven days’ rest, scattered six hits and struck out eight while giving up two earned runs.

“He pitched on three days’ rest,” coach Travis Tate said. “I guess I should have been pitching him more often, because this is probably the best he has pitched all year.”

Sharpe also came up big at the plate. After giving up two runs in the seventh, cutting his lead to 5-3, he stroked a grand slam to left-center to give Lincoln County a six-run bulge.

“Their pitcher did an incredible job,” Reese said. “He worked ahead to 90 percent of our batters. He was throwing his curve for a first-pitch strike, and he had our guys guessing. His grand slam killed us.”

Tate would have been satisfied with a sacrifice fly.

“One run right there would have been big, but the slam took what wind they had left out of their sails,” he said.

The Lions had a chance to take an early lead in the second inning, but a bunt bounced straight back to the pitcher and he caught the lead runner at third. The Lions left the bases loaded when Sharpe got a strikeout for the third out. They had another possible rally killed in the third when a pinch runner was thrown out at home trying to advance on a popup to deep short.

The Falcons took the lead in the third on an error and RBI singles from Timmy Simms and Bryan Sharpe and went up 5-1 with a run each in the fourth and fifth innings. Jordan Whitaker reached on an error and scored on Jeremy Dollar’s triple, and Bryan Sharpe doubled and scored on a single from Brandon Amos.

Red Bank made it close in the sixth on Hunter Adkins’ single, a walk to Ledbetter, an RBI single by Brandon Ward and a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Cullen Clabo.

n Murfreesboro Oakland 5, Bradley Central 4: At Murfreesboro, Tennyson Dodd hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to put Oakland back in the state tournament. Bradley finished the season 29-10.