BENTON, Tenn. — For five innings Jared Allen was a pitcher of perfection.
In the sixth, though, a graffiti artist sporting Polk County colors splattered the masterpiece and left and Allen and his Wildcats teammates with little but egg on their faces and a 7-4 Class AA baseball sectional loss to visiting Smith County.
Allen, a pitcher by necessity who’d rather spend his time roaming the outfield, surrendered his perfect game with a opening walk in the sixth, although that runner was eclipsed on a fielder’s choice. But the next batter somehow poked a single through the right side and the Wildcats then butchered a possible double play on an infield pop-up. By this time, the always-cool Allen had finally broken a sweat and he hit the next batter to give him a first-and-third with two outs. The Wildcats then botched a probable forceout at second and finally paid the price when Payton Bray banged a three-run triple off the fence in left-center.
By the time Allen induced a weak fly to right for the third out the Wildcats had squandered a 3-0 lead by giving up four unearned runs.
“You can hit ground balls all day in practice but until you make the players late in the game when it counts you’re going to get beat,” Polk County coach Bill Triplett said. “You can’t give good clubs extra outs but we did and Instead of taking a 3-0 lead into the seventh we’re down 4-3.”
Allen was as good at the plate early as he was on the mound.
His third-inning sacrifice fly, coming on the heels of Collin Wimberly’s sacrifice bunt, gave the Wildcats an early lead. No. 9 hitter Justin Greer, who had opened the inning with a single to left, scored the run. He then followed with a towering two-run, fifth-inning homer to left to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 3-0.
It appeared that he had hit his pitching stride when he struck out the side in the fifth.
“The Allen kid was tough. I didn’t think his stuff was going to be that good, but his slider was giving us fits,” said Smith County coach Scott Pope, who must have walked two miles in the first five innings. “I just kept telling the guys to stay up, that this game was seven innings.”
The Owls must have believed because they parlayed the walk, a physical error, two mental miscues, a seeing-eye single and Bray’s double into a one-run lead, totally shredding Allen’s effort.
“Baseball is a funny game but this game is typical of our season,” Pope said. “When we have been shut down all it has taken is a key walk or a key hit-by-pitch or a key hit to break it open.”
They had the key ring and Polk’s rally in the bottom of the sixth to tie — on Wimberly’s infield single — only enhanced the agony because Smith County put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh on an RBI groundout by Hunter Hackett and a two-run double to left by Timmy Bush.
“Our Achilles’ heel all year has been our defense and fortunately we had been able most times to score enough runs to overcome,” Triplett said. “I feel bad for the kids but you you have to play good defense.”