RINGGOLD, Ga. -- The Ringgold baseball Tigers aren't purposely trying to age their coach, but many more games like the last two and Brent Tucker might need a break.
A day after giving up a big lead and having to go extra innings to defeat North Murray, Tucker's Tigers had to hold off a late Calhoun rally Thursday for a 4-3 win that puts them alone in first place in competitive Region 6-AAA. Senior right-hander Zach Morris pitched a complete game.
Following Matthew Mullinax's three-run homer for the Yellow Jackets with no one out in the seventh, Morris retired the next three to seal the win.
Ringgold pitcher Zach Morris delivers during the Tigers 4-3 win over the visiting Calhoun Yellowjackets on Thursday, April 9, 2015."Calhoun is such a good ball club with such a good tradition, so any win over them is big," said Tucker, exhaling. "Of course, we had to make it interesting -- and we've got to stop that habit -- but we knew this was going to be a tight region race to the end. Zach did a nice job out there, and even after they got the homer I never had any thoughts of pulling him."
The win puts Ringgold (14-6, 9-1) a game ahead of Sonoraville and Adairsville and two in front of Calhoun. It also avenges the Tigers' lone league loss, a 7-6 loss in which Ringgold once led 6-1. The Tigers still have to play at Adairsville and Sonoraville to end the season.
Morris and Calhoun lefty John Allen Kendrick were locked in a scoreless duel through three innings, but the Tigers broke through in the fourth on two-out doubles from Jacob Justice and Ethan Dalton. They made it 3-0 in the fifth with two more key two-out hits, an RBI double from Peyton Tennant and a run-scoring single from Ty Jones.
A Justice single and stolen base, Cade Gilbert's single and an infield error plated what turned out to be the winning run in the sixth. The hustle run may have pleased Tucker the most.
"Picking up that one run in the sixth was huge, and that's the type of thing that wins big ballgames," the coach said. "We picked up the stolen base from JJ -- and he can really run for a big guy -- and were able to scratch that run across. It turned out to be huge."
Morris cruised through the first six innings with just six hits allowed, one each inning, and had allowed only one Calhoun runner to reach third. However, he allowed a single to Chazz Moss and walked Kendrick leading off the seventh before Mullinax took him deep to cut the lead to one.
Morris, a Duke University football signee, then retired the Jackets' three, four and five batters to end the game.
"That was a huge win," he said. "We've secured first place for now, but we still need to show up for the rest of them because we've got a lot of work to do. When he hit it I got a little nervous, but I was able to keep my composure and shut them down. Having that little cushion in the seventh made it a lot easier."
Justice led the Ringgold seven-hit attack with two hits and scored twice, while Moss was 2-for-2 for Calhoun (10-5, 6-3).
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.