Not even district realignment could prevent the 6-A baseball tournament from remaining the Yellow Jackets invitational. Even after perennial state tournament contender Marion County dropped down a class, Lookout Valley maintained its stronghold on the district tournament championship.
The Yellow Jackets knocked off Marion on Tuesday and South Pittsburg ended the regular-season district champion Warriors’ season in the loser’s bracket final Wednesday evening. Lookout Valley then overcame a frustrating night on the base path to defeat South Pittsburg 8-5 for its fourth consecutive district tournament title.
“Never gets old,” joked Yellow Jackets coach David Dinger afterward. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a team leave as many runners on base as we did, but we did just enough to win it.”
Lookout Valley left 16 runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded in five of its six innings. After the Pirates took a 2-0 lead, Caleb Cass got the Jackets on the board with a home run to lead off the second and the Jackets pulled ahead by scoring three runs on a two-out error and added to their lead on Aaron O’Dell’s two-run double.
“O’Dell’s hit was the big one for us,” Dinger said. “We needed something to get a little breathing room.
“My hat’s off to South Pittsburg. They got a big rivalry win in the heat and turned around 30 minutes later and competed hard.
The Pirates’ 8-3 upset win over Marion was their first in eight years and advanced them to the region for the first time in 10 years. Sophomore lefthander Jacob Toney allowed five hits and struck out eight and also went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
“He wasn’t at his best,” Pirates coach Wesley Stone said. “He labored a little, but he gave us a chance and to say the least, it’s very gratifying to get this win.”