Austin Steel outduels Brandon Thompson; Stewarts Creek nips Bradley 1-0

Stewarts Creek's Brandon Dial (13) gets back to first as Bradley Central's Gunnar Norwood (33) takes the attempted pickoff throw. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

By Ward Gossett May 22, 2016 2 min read

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Steel outduels Thompson; Stewarts Creek nips Bradley 1-0

Bradley Central head coach Travis Adams gives signals to the Bear defense. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

Bradley Central second baseman Hunter James (1) and right fielder Caleb Reed (12) almost collide as James catches a short fly ball for an out. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

Bradley Central first baseman Gunnar Norwood (33) fields a ground ball. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

Bradley Central pitcher Brandon Thompson (29) throws to the plate. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

The throw gets by Bradley Central's catcher Kylar Lynn (13) as Stewart Creek's Daniel Freeman (12) scores. The Stewarts Creek Red Hawks visited the Bradley Central Bears in a TSSAA Sectional baseball matchup Saturday May 21, 2016.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – A fabulous season ended Saturday for the Bradley Central baseball team with a 1-0 state sectional loss to Stewarts Creek.

As he went through preseason paces, coach Travis Adams didn’t know what to expect from his Bears. After the back-to-back district wins against Soddy-Daisy early in the season, though, he knew they had the makings for success.

“We saw how the kids grew and how their confidence level grew,” Adams said. “We saw in the Soddy-Daisy series that these guys were growing into it.”

The Bears used that series as a springboard and wound up blitzing through District 5-AAA undefeated. They then won the district tournament and followed with the Region 3 championship, thus arriving in a host role for a Class AAA sectional.

However, it took just 95 minutes for visiting Stewarts Creek, the Region 4 runner-up, to derail the Bears’ state tournament hopes. The Red Hawks did it with a run in the second inning and a tremendous pitching performance from Austin Steel.