By Michael Lindsay
The District 7-3A baseball tournament championship plaque is staying in Baxter for the fourth consecutive season as the Upperman Bees defeated Stone Memorial in Monday’s championship game, 7-4.
“That’s one of the goals that this bunch set in the preseason,” said Upperman head coach Wes Shanks. “We went 10-0 in the district regular season, and that’s challenging. We fought through some adversity in this one and I’m pleased with the guys’ effort.
“This is a rivalry game,” added Shanks. “There was some jawing back and forth. We see this team (Stone Memorial) in football, basketball and other sports; that’s what makes it exciting and mean something.”
Upperman’s senior class, including Cody Lowe, Julian Llano, Rookie Allison, Justin Fallon, Aiden Wyatt, Alec Wilson, Evan Huddleston and Karsen Holroyd have won the district championship all four seasons along with the Class 3A state championship their freshman year and state runners-up as sophomores.
“How many other teams in the state have done that?” said Shanks. “That’s dominance in the Upper Cumberland; we go play some of the biggest competition and it pushes them.”
Sophomore district MVP Chris Wirsing earned the victory on the mound with 6 strikeouts in 5 and 2/3 innings of work. Senior Justin Fallon closed the contest with 3 strikeouts and a walk in an inning and a third.
Wirsing helped himself at the plate as he went 3-3 with 2 doubles, an RBI and a run scored. Julian Llano went 2-3 with 2 runs scored, 2 stolen bases, a double and an RBI.
Stone Memorial opened the contest with two runs in the top of the first inning as Talyn Hurd stole home followed by a Titus Bisbee bunt single to score Gage Eldridge. Upperman answered with a Wirsing run via a wild pitch in the bottom of the first to make the score 2-1 entering the second.
Griffin Templeton added to Stone Memorial’s lead in the top of the second inning via an RBI single to right, scoring Shaeffer Sitton. Wirsing again stepped up in the bottom of the second to pull his team within a run on a double to score Llano at 3-2.
After a scoreless top of the third, Upperman put up three runs in the bottom of the inning via a Carson Shupe single, Llano grounder and Evan Huddleston single to take a 5-3 advantage.
The Bees scored in the bottom of the fourth via a Panther error and in the fifth on a Fallon sacrifice fly to take a 7-3 lead. Stone Memorial tacked on a run in the top of the sixth on an Eldridge single to score Templeton before Fallon entered and closed out the game from there, securing the 7-4 win for Upperman.
Both teams advance to the Region 4-3A tournament on Friday at Upperman High School. Upperman will face Tullahoma at 5 p.m. followed by Stone Memorial vs. Lawrence County 30 minutes after. The double elimination tournament will continue Saturday with the first game scheduled for noon.
“The region tournament is here in Baxter,” said Shanks. “We know we’re going to get quality baseball teams coming here.”
