RINGGOLD, Ga. -- The what-ifs were still swirling around in Brent Tucker's head 20 minutes after his Ringgold High School baseball team let a three-run lead evaporate into an 8-5 loss in Thursday's Class AAA second-round elimination game against Westminster.
As the reality of another successful season coming to an end started to sink in, though, the veteran coach, usually so reserved, let his players know where they will always stand with him.
"This is a special group," he said, keeping his emotions somewhat in check. "This team could have folded up shop early, but they didn't. There were several times throughout the year they could have said to heck with it, but they didn't.
"They ran off 17, 18 wins in a row and they are leaving as region champions. I'm very, very proud of them for that accomplishment. I don't want it to end, not so much for the baseball, but because I'm going to miss seeing them every day. They're just that kind of group."
The Tigers' undoing Thursday was a nightmarish sixth inning in which the Wildcats (22-9) batted around and scored six times on just four hits to turn around the early 5-2 advantage for Ringgold (24-8).
Senior right-handed pitcher Zach Morris, after allowing just one hit in the previous three innings, gave up consecutive hits to Aarmon Painter and Connor Stutts leading off the inning, with Painter scoring to cut the lead to two. With one out, Tucker elected to intentionally walk Will Benson, who had two homers in the series, and Morris followed by getting Kenneth Hertzfeld to fly out.
Dalton Light followed with an RBI single and Blake Huber was hit to load the bases for No. 9 batter Robert deGolian. Morris quickly got the freshman in an 0-2 hole, but deGolian laced the third pitch to right field for a clean single, and when the ball was misplayed in the outfield all three runners scored. DeGolian then made it 8-5 by scoring on a wild pitch.
"Our kids did a great job with two strikes today," Westminster coach Russell Wrenn said. "We had five or six two-strike hits, including the game-winning hit by deGolian.
"What they did better than us most of the series was they made the routine play. Earlier it looked the same thing since we gave them a couple of extra outs earlier. They finally made a mistake in the field there, and it helped us out."
The Tigers used a three-run second inning that included two hit batters and an error and Jordan Ransom's two-run homer in the fourth inning to take the 5-2 lead. However, Westminster reliever Rankin Woley, who's going to LSU to play baseball and who had pitched only briefly since breaking his collarbone in football, allowed only two baserunners the rest of the way.
Winning coach Wrenn was effusive in his praise of the Tigers in defeat.
"This was at least a semifinal series," he said. "We've been to the semis the last two years, and they are not just very talented, they're very well coached. We knew we had our work cut out for us, and so did they.
"It's the unfortunate part when you get to this part of the brackets. The seeds are what we have to work with, but they don't take into account the programs. That team is absolutely capable of playing for a state title."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.