SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - For the second time this high school golf season, an eighth-grader stole the spotlight.
Baylor's Ivan Reap trailed by four holes with four holes to play Thursday in the Red Raiders' 18-hole match-play event against rival McCallie at Sweetens Cove. Reap won each of those holes, halved his match and gained half a point for his team.
Without that, the match would've ended all-square. Instead, Baylor came away with a 6 1/2-5 1/2 victory in the teams' annual final tuneup before the Division II-AA East/Middle Region tournament Monday at The Bear Trace at Tims Ford in Winchester.
The other big impact by an eighth-grader this year was McCallie's Joe Carter winning the City Prep championship. Carter won his individual match Thursday.
Reap played out of the No. 7 position in the Red Raiders' eight-player lineup. In addition to Reap, Baylor coach Gary Partrick also had praise for his other players at the back end - something the Red Raiders haven't always had during his time as coach.
"We played well at the top, and we played well in the six, seven and eight holes," Partrick said. "We've been playing this match with them for a long time. When I first took this job we didn't have any depth. The last few years we have performed well at the bottom. Today we got two and a half points out of the seven and eight holes."
Partrick also praised McCallie coach Rob Riddle and the job his young squad did in the competition.
"They fought hard. They really did," Riddle said of his players. "Our guys grew up a little bit out there. It was a tough match."
Baylor's individual winners included its players in the top two positions, A.J. Lintunen and Sam Marshall. Those two also won their team point, as did Reap and his partner Holt Patton. Patton and Joe Reilly were the Red Raiders' other individual winners.
Carter combined with partner Jake Levine, also an individual winner, for a team point for the Blue Tornado. The two were down three holes at one point before winning five consecutive holes.
When acknowledging the job done by those two, Riddle referred to Levine as one of his older players. Then the coach quickly added, "When I'm talking about an old player, I mean a 10th-grader."
Freshmen Jack Billups and Cannon Crane squeezed out a team point for McCallie on the final hole - a 148-yard par 3 - on Billups' short birdie putt. Billups was also an individual winner.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on twitter @KelleySmiddie.