For a while, Zach McCarter could only shake his head. The Hixson pitcher threw no-hit ball for 5 2/3 innings and for five innings found himself on the wrong end of a 5-1 score.
Hixson finally won a battle of futility, outlasting East Ridge 9-8 to advance to a District 6-AA baseball tournament semifinal this afternoon. The Wildcats will play regular-season champion Red Bank at 2 at Hixson.
“Red Bank is a great team, a good hitting team,” Hixson coach Ted Mulder said. “Against Red Bank, we have to play our game. We can’t worry about Red Bank and what they’re doing. We have to throw and catch and throw strikes.”
East Hamilton, a 16-0 winner over Tyner, will play regular-season runner-up Central at 5.
“You have to take care of business. This was a single-elimination game,” said East Hamilton coach Steve Garland, who emptied his bench in the three-inning contest. “We challenged the guys to be businesslike. We were fortunate enough to get everybody in.”
It took nine innings for Hixson to pull it out its win, and Dallas France, who started the game behind the plate, got the pitching victory by striking out four in the final three innings.
France and McCarter combined for a two-hitter, striking out 15. McCarter especially was victimized by errors and by his own wildness, with seven walks.
“Zach throws a lot of pitches because he sometimes tries to do too much,” Mulder said. “When he pitches within himself, he’s one of the better pitchers around. But sometimes he tries to do it all by himself.”
Mulder has dealt with the errors most of the season, but it was a different kind of error Friday night, and the Wildcats made six.
“We have struggled in the field, and lately it has been more throwing than catching,” he said.
But Hixson perservered and came up with consecutive singles from Walker Norris, Steven Cochrum and Gauge Long, Long driving in the winning run.
“We had some big-time hits including those three in the ninth, and Stephen Leech’s home run seemed to get our bats going,” Mulder said.