SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - Early in the season, with the team struggling to score runs, South Pittsburg baseball coach Brian Paris tweaked the lineup slightly, moving Jess Morrison to bat leadoff.
The move paid off as the rest of the Pirates followed their senior leader's aggressive batting approach to earn the top seed in the District 6-A tournament. Tuesday night, after Morrison set the tone with a leadoff home run - his first of the season -the Pirates rolled to their fourth-straight District 6-A championship with a 14-4, five-inning win over rival Marion County.
"I feel like the rest of the team kind of looks to me to be a leader," said Morrison, who added an RBI single in the second inning and was honored as the 6-A player of the year after the game. Morrison also had a homer in last year's district title game.
Marion County's Trae Tucker snags the ball as South Pittsburg's Travis Rowell dives back to first base Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at South Pittsburg High School's baseball field.
"We had seen their pitcher (Gavin Smith) earlier this year and I knew he was pretty consistent throwing strikes, so I just waited on one. To get my first home run of the year in this game, against them, it feels great."
The Pirates have scored 39 runs in their three district tournament games and got key hits throughout the lineup Tuesday, including homers from Micah Genter and Garrett Raulston, who launched his seventh of the year, a three-run shot, as part of a six-run second inning. The 11 hits were more than enough for senior left-hander Drew Petty, who earned the win despite struggling with control at times, and Raulston earned a save.
After the Pirates (22-10) jumped out to an 8-0 lead, Marion battled back with four runs in the third, three on South Pittsburg errors and another on an RBI hit from Jace Barton. The Pirates answered back with six more runs in the fourth, four coming on Marion errors and two more on Genter's first homer of the season. Genter was 3-for-3 with two extra-base hits and thre RBIs.
"There's always a little nerves before a game like this against a rival," said Pirates coach Brian Paris, whose team earned its third win in four meetings with the Warriors. "But Jess really took care of calming my nerves. What a way to start things off for us, and the rest of the guys followed with some big hits up and down the lineup.
"My comfort level is directly related to how these guys approach the game right now. We're playing really well and I couldn't be more proud of how they're taking care of business."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.