Recent Ooltewah High School graduate Brady Reed came through with a two-run double to center field Monday, pushing his Tennessee team to a 12-8 victory in the annual all-star baseball game against Georgia players at AT&T Field.
“I just closed my eyes and swung,” Reed joked after putting his team ahead 6-5 in the seventh inning. “It was a first-pitch fastball and I was looking for a fastball, which is what I do most of the time.”
The win was Tennessee’s eighth in the nine-game series. Georgia won 3-2 last year in the lowest-scoring game in the series and brought back Dalton coach Bob Brotherton with hopes of repeating the victory.
“You have to give Tennessee credit,” Brotherton said. “We jumped out with a few gifts. Our kids played hard, but the Tennessee kids came back, got the hits when they needed and won it.”
Reed was named Tennessee MVP, but overall MVP honors went to Baylor’s Will Stansell, who was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs of his own.
“I expected to come out and have fun with my friends and hoped to win,” said Stansell, who will continue his career at Tennessee Tech.
Cartersville pitcher Adam Clarke held the Tennesseans to one hit and no runs in the first three innings and left with a 5-0 lead.
“I guess I got a little nervous, but I told the guys to go out and swing the bats,” said Soddy-Daisy coach Jared Hensley, who was making his debut as the Tennessee coach. “I knew we had the guys to do it, but it was nice to get the 10-spot over the last four innings.”
Georgia scored five runs in the second on a walk, a hit batsmen, a run-scoring single from LaFayette’s Brett Butler, an error and an RBI double from LaFayette’s Bowe Coffman.
TENNESSEE 12, GEORGIA 8Tennessee 000 201 432 — 12 9 3Georgia 050 001 020 — 8 9 2WP: Alex Rose. LP: Blaine Bussey. 3B: Mitch Townsend (G); Andrew Crowe (T). 2B: Stryker Brown (G); Will Stansell 2, Andrew Mayfield, Brady Reed, Dylan Pritchett (T). Records: Tennessee leads the series 8-1.
Tennessee cut into the lead with a Stansell double in the fourth and closed within two runs in the sixth on a double from Ooltewah’s Andrew Mayfield and a groundout to first by Central’s Tim Clement. Tennessee took the lead in the seventh, scoring four runs on three walks, an error and Reed’s
two-out double, and got insurance in the eighth with an RBI double from McCallie’s Dylan Pritchett and a two-run triple from Boyd-Buchanan’s Andrew Crowe.
Georgia scored twice in the bottom of the eighth on singles from Ridgeland’s Dominique Wilkins and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe’s Matt Osbourn.
Tennessee reapplied the pressure in the ninth, getting one run when Reed was hit by a pitch and came around on a wild pitch and an error and another on a sacrifice fly by Soddy-Daisy’s Michael Howard after a walk by Clement.
* Bradley Central standout Cole Brand made his last amateur appearance, pitching the ninth inning. He has signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and leaves today for Jupiter, Fla., and the Gulf Coast League.
Brand was selected in the 42nd round of last week’s MLB amateur draft.