Josh Thomas of South Pittsburg slides safely into second base ahead of the throw to Boyd-Buchannan second baseman Rance Harden on Wednesday at South Pittsburg.SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. -- Matt Allen knew the same pitch that had gotten him into trouble could bail him out. Although Allen had narrowly missed dropping his curve ball over the plate early in the seventh, allowing two runners to reach base, and eventually advance to second and third, South Pittsburg's senior left-hander didn't give up on the pitch and froze Boyd-Buchanan's Austin Bailey for the final out of the game
Allen's curve helped him work out of jams in the final three innings, and the Pirates claimed a 3-2 victory for their second straight Region 3-A championship. South Pittsburg (30-7) will host Jackson County in a state sectional Friday at 2 p.m. EDT, while Boyd-Buchanan travels to Friendship Christian.
"All you can say is that was one heck of a gutsy performance," Pirates coach Wesley Stone said. "He's just a real tough competitor, and he gutted it out tonight. Even when he got into trouble in the seventh, I never thought about taking him out. I just yelled out to go get the last two guys and that's what he did.
"Defensively, we put him in some bad situations several times, but he just kept fighting."
South Pittsburg struck for two runs in the second when Josh Thomas beat out a bases-loaded fielder's choice with two outs and another run scored on an errant throw to first. The Buccaneers cut the lead in half on an RBI double by Rance Harden in the third that plated Jim Cardwell.
After South Pittsburg countered with another run in the home half of the third on Michael Allen's RBI squeeze bunt, the Bucs again cut the deficit to one on Blake Cordell's two-out RBI single in the sixth.
Allen (7-1), who allowed just three hits but walked seven, got out of a base-loaded jam in the fifth by striking out the last two batters, and finished with 11 total strikeouts. The Bucs left 12 runners on base.
"I didn't have my best stuff, but I knew if I would just bear down and throw strikes when they were threatening we could either get groundball outs or maybe strikeouts," Allen said. "I kind of felt like it was my responsibility as a senior to finish it. It was expected of me. I knew I wasn't going to blow them away with my fastball, so I had to just keep working the curve and hitting the corners."