DUNLAP, Tenn. — Thursday was probably a long night for Trey Hicks, the Red Bank baseball assistant coach who happens to have Sequatchie County coach Aaron Simmons for a roommate.
Simmons’ Indians edged Red Bank 3-1 Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the Sequatchie Valley baseball tournament.
“I don’t want to say too much,” Simmons said of the housing arrangement and the games with Red Bank. “We have fun with it, but when we get on the field it’s all business.”
Sequatchie was definitely all business.
Red Bank coach Bumper Reese knew his team was in for a test and assured his players of that. They heeded neither him nor Hicks.
The Lions were coming off a three-game stretch in which they scored 53 runs while clinching the District 6-AA championship. Those bats abandoned them in their first game, and it didn’t help their cause that they were facing someone new with a rejuvenated arm.
Sequatchie County, which wrapped up the District 7-AA championship more than a week ago, won behind senior pitcher Brennan Wilson. In a game that could be repeated in the postseason sectionals if both teams have a little luck, Wilson fashioned a two-hitter and struck out 11 against a team that had hit five long home runs the night before to clinch the 6-AA regular-season title.
Wilson was something of a gift for Simmons, who thought early in the season he’d lost the pitcher to shoulder problems.
“It was something with his rotator cuff, and doctors told him to take off two or three weeks,” Simmons said. “I didn’t think he would pitch this year.”
Wilson, though, came back a couple of weeks ago and entered Thursday’s game with a 1-1 record. He improved to 3-1 with his third complete game of the season, spotting a pretty good fastball (84-85 mph) and his breaking ball all day.
“He’s a competitor. He never gives up. He never shows any emotion,” Simmons said. “And he isn’t afraid to pitch inside. He moved the curveball in and out, and he hit his spots pretty well.”
Red Bank scored in the sixth when Taylor Martin doubled down the left-field line to bring in T.J. Butts, who had walked. The Lions’ only other hit came in their only other threat. Hunter Holmes singled up the middle and moved to second when Andy Christopher walked. But Red Bank failed to get a bunt down, leading to a strikeout, and Sequatchie stifled the threat with a 6-4-3 double play.
“The kid pitched well all night. We hit some balls hard early and he seemed to get better the deeper into the game we got,” Reese said.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth. Tyler G. Kilgore doubled to left, Dakota Hudson singled and Bryant Dykes got the RBI on a 6-3 groundout. Sequatchie got another run in the fifth on two walks, a single from Hunter Hudson and a fielder’s choice from Kyle Harmon. Their final run, in the sixth, came when Dakota Hudson reached on an error and scored on an infield single from Wilson.
Each of the Hudsons had two of Sequatchie’s seven hits.
Sequatchie, which had made more than 70 errors in 24 games this season, turned in an error-free performance.
“The kids found a way to play sound baseball,” Simmons said. “They know we could face Red Bank again, and they know Red Bank is the type team we’re going to face in the postseason. When we won the district, I think we relaxed as a team and we lost three of our next seven games. We got too relaxed as a team. We are now starting to realize that this is when you have to step it up.”
Red Bank won in its second game of the tournament to beat South Pittsburg 8-2 with freshman Hagen Wilkey providing a grand-slam home run.