RINGGOLD, Ga. - High expectations are nothing new for the Ringgold High School baseball team, but one thing coach Brent Tucker has ingrained into his players' minds is that talk is cheap.
So if results are the real benchmark of a team to watch, Tuesday night's 11-1 win over perennial power Calhoun will remove any doubt about the Tigers having been picked as preseason favorites in Region 6-AAA. Of course, Tucker isn't putting too much stock in Ringgold's lopsided five-inning win.
"We've got to play these guys again and we just caught them when we had a great day and they had a bad day," Tucker said after watching his Tigers (7-3, 2-0) out-hit the Yellow Jackets 11-2. "They're a great program and I have all the respect in the world for what Chip (Henderson) and his staff does. We've still got to go down there, and it could be the other way around. It was just our day."
That day picked up steam in the bottom of the first inning when Cade Gilbert worked Calhoun pitcher Jackson Braden for a leadoff walk. Hunter Foskey, Rhett Baldwin and Tyler Nichols followed with singles for a 2-0 lead, and the Tigers added two more runs in the inning on an RBI groundout from Noah Parrish and freshman Andre Tarver's two-out single.
"We made him throw 41 pitches in that first inning, and even when we made outs we made him work," Tucker said of Braden, who lasted just two innings. "We were able to keep constant pressure on them, beginning with that leadoff walk. That made us relax, and it put the pressure on them to play catch-up."
With ace Devin Lancaster on the mound, that was going to be difficult. The future Tennessee Tech pitcher, after allowing a first-inning walk, sat down the Jackets in order in the second. He allowed a run on Jarrett Carden's double in the third while striking out seven to improve to 4-0.
The Tigers, meanwhile, were far from finished. Nichols, a junior who earned his first varsity starts this season after standing out in preseason practices, smacked a two-run homer in the second after Foskey's RBI hit two batters earlier made it 5-0.
Nichols' emergence in particular is a key for the Tigers, according to Tucker. Incumbent cleanup man Jacob Justice was lost for the season with a knee injury in preseason, creating a very important opening.
"Once J.J. went down I knew the opportunity was there - even though it was bad - and I wanted to step up and be a leader," Nichols said. "This was a great team win. We worked on our hitting all week and we knew we had to hit the ball better if we want to win this region. We've still got some work to do, but we're getting there."
The onslaught continued in the third inning when Tarver made it 9-1 with a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right field. Nichols, Foskey and Tarver combined to go 7-for-8 with eight RBIs in a lineup Tucker tinkered with before the game.
"This is the first game we've switched it up," he said. "I just wanted to see it and I'm glad I did. It put some different guys in RBI or on-base spots, and they came through."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.