Brandon Willingham's first trip to Marion County ended only after he spent three weeks with then 14-year-old teammate Logan Walters.
"We've been friends for a long time. I told my mom when I went over there back then that I didn't want to come home," Willingham said after he and his Boyd-Buchanan baseball teammates rallied for a 6-5 Region 3-A victory over Walters and visiting Marion County.
Willingham's fifth-inning two-run homer tied the game at 5, and his opposite-field single provided the game-winner in the seventh.
"My first thought was to bunt the runner over," Willingham said of the last at-bat. "I foul-bunted the first pitch, a curveball, and he threw another curve just off the plate. I was looking fastball and was ready to adjust. I stayed back on it and tried to take it the other way. The second baseman almost made a good play on it."
The ball skipped into right field, allowing pinch-runner Schastin Stewart to cross the plate after advancing to second on a Seth Rogers single to center. Stewart was running for Colby Morgan, who had singled.
"Brandon had great at-bats those last two times up - the home run and then with the presence of mind to try to go to the other way in the seventh," Buccaneers coach Taylor Gilley said.
The Bucs (22-4) advanced to Wednesday's region championship game but had to dig themselves out of a 5-0 hole after the top of the fifth.
"Gosh, it about gave me a heart attack. We hurt ourselves again and again through the first four innings," Gilley said. "But we fought back. We had some mistakes early that hurt us. I was proud of the fight, but we have to clean it up. I just hope we got it out of our systems."
While the Bucs were slow out of the gate, some of the credit should go to pitcher Walters, who spotted his fastball and set up his opponents with it before going to a wicked curveball that he was putting where he wanted. The Warriors senior had five strikeouts through the first four innings, including Ks of the 2-3-4 hitters in the first inning.
"He's a gutsy player, a competitor, and he fought hard," Gilley said. "He had his stuff. His fastball was on and his curve just kept us off-balance."
Boyd-Buchanan finally got to Walters in the fifth. Bray Wilson walked and moved to second on Thomas Baker's sacrifice before Cade Evans' bunt single put runners on third and first with two out. Morgan and Seth Rogers each singled home a run before Willingham's two-run homer.
Marion, which fell to Boyd-Buchanan in a similiar walk-off scenario last year, scored a run in the first on an error and Bryce Massengale's double. The Warriors went up 4-0 in the third on a double by Walters, a run-scoring single from Jacob Saylors and Massengale's second double, this one for two RBIs.
"Logan's a great pitcher, one of the better ones we have seen, and they can swing the bat. They took advantage when they had opportunities," Gilley said.
* Meigs County 5, Coalfield 0: At Coalfield, Tenn., Walker Malone pitched a shutout and added three hits and three RBIs leading the Tigers to the victory.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.