EVENSVILLE, Tenn. – Bradley Central feasted on off-speed pitching and on Wednesday secured its first region baseball championship since 2007.
The 12-0, five-inning victory over Rhea County provided coach Travis Adams with his first region crown. The Bears are scheduled to play their sectional game against the Siegel/Stewarts Creek loser Friday, but the game likely will be moved to 6 p.m. Saturday because of predicted inclement weather.
Bears senior pitcher Gunnar Norward wasn’t at his best – “I lost (control of) my fastball for a while,” he said – but he threw only 59 pitches and struck out four while allowing just two hits in four innings of work.
With a healthy lead, Adams decided to pull Norwood with the idea that he would be available for relief work if needed for the sectional.
His teammates staked the senior right-hander to a 3-0 lead before he went to the mound. Cason Still led off the game with a single to right field and advanced on the first of three first-inning Rhea errors. Jake Presley bunted for a single and advanced Still to third, and Still scored on another Eagles error. With two on, Kylan Lynn lofted a sacrifice fly to center for run No. 2, and Brandon Thompson plated the third run on a double to left-center.
“Getting those three runs early like that lets you breathe a little and let Gunnar be a little more aggressive,” Adams said.
“He was throwing strikes,” added catcher Lynn. “He gets the ball downhill and hides it well. Nobody has been able to hit him this season thus far – same thing when Brandon (Thomas) is pitching.”
The win was Norwood’s eighth without a loss this season.
The Bears added two runs in the third on Lynn’s double and consecutive singles from Thompson, Jeremiah Sims and Norwood and then broke the game wide open with a five-run fourth featuring singles by Still, Carpenter, Standifer and Lynn.
They added a pair of runs to end the game in five on singles from Jake Presley and Lynn and a groundout RBI from Carpenter. Bradley banged out 16 hits, led by Lynn going 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
“I think six of the 10 pitches they threw me were curveballs. I have had another night or two pretty similar, but this is probably my best,” Lynn said.
He wasn’t the only one listening well to the coaches’ pregame chat about being patient at the plate.
“We stayed with our approach offensively. We thought they would throw a lot of off-speed stuff and try to frustrate us a little,” Adams said. “We kept tacking on runs and they had to make some changes. That’s one of our better hitting performances.”
Rhea County, the District 5 champion, also advances to the sectionals, but the Eagles will be on the road to the Siegel-Stewarts Creek winner. That game also is scheduled for Friday but could wind up being Saturday.
Westin Ray was 2-for-3 for the Eagles.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.