Brookshire, Voges pitch Tornado into state tournament

Chase Brookshire’s four-hitter was good. Stuart Voges’ two-hitter was even better.

The two McCallie pitchers dominated Friday and the Blue Tornado cruised to a pair of wins over visiting Memphis University School in their Division II-AA baseball substate best-of-three series. Brookshire got the win in a 7-1 victory in the first game, and Voges got even more support in a 9-0 blowout.

“I felt like we were very fortunate to hit the ball as well as we did and then pitch as well as we did,” McCallie coach Chris Richardson said.

Brookshire and Voges pitched a combined 14 innings and allowed one run on six hits, with 20 strikeouts. Voges struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh to close out the second game and send McCallie (25-10) to the state tournament, which begins Tuesday.

“It was a good day for us,” Vogues said. “My curveball was working for me. I adjusted my grip a little bit and I was able to throw it for a strike and make it dip out of the zone when I wanted it to.”

Brookshire gave up a run in the top of the first inning of the first game. It wound up being the only run McCallie surrendered all day.

The left-hander struck out 11 and was in command throughout most of the final six innings after giving up a triple to Forrest Baty to start the game. Jason Manis drove in Baty three batters later to give the Owls (12-20) a 1-0 lead, which didn’t last long.

In the third, Dylan Pritchett homered just over the fence in left field to tie the game. McCallie had runners on second and third with two outs later in the inning, but Andy Brown’s fly ball was caught on the warning track.

Brookshire struck out the side in the fourth and McCallie took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on Guerin Higgins’ single to left.

McCallie took control of the game in the fifth inning. John Brock walked to lead off the inning, Brookshine ripped a single down the third-base line and Voges advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt.

That brought Brown to the plate and as he dug in a teammate called from the dugout, “Hey, ducks on the pond, Andy Brown!” Not for long.

Brown drilled a three-run homer well beyond the fence in left for a 5-1 advantage.

Pritchett drove in two more runs in the sixth with a single to left.

After a rain delay of nearly an hour, McCallie got to work in game two. Brown doubled to lead off the second inning and later scored.

McCallie put the game out of reach with a seven-run fourth inning. Brown led off with a groundout but batted again and delivered a two-run single that put the Tornado up 7-0.