By Michael Lindsay
The York Institute Dragons finished runners-up in the District 5-2A baseball tournament Tuesday at Watertown as they fell to the Purple Tigers, 11-1.
York’s season isn’t over despite the loss as they clinched a berth in the Region 3-2A tournament a day before via a winner-take-all game three victory at #2 seed Smith County, 3-2.
“The last week has been a wild ride,” said York head coach Adam Bowden. “We’ve been dealing with the weather and battling through it. We scheduled as many tough games as we could in the regular season, and we thought it would pay dividends in the tournament. Tonight (at Watertown), we ran out of gas after playing three days in a row. Big picture, we’re still playing and have the region tournament coming up.”
After Smith County won game one of their three-game semifinal series 8-2, York trailed 6-4 in game two entering the bottom of the seventh inning. The Dragons rallied for three runs to win 7-6 via a walk-off hit-by-pitch by Kaden Sutton with two outs. The Dragons then trailed in Monday’s game three 2-1 after 4 innings before scoring a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 3-2 lead.
“Smith County has had our number for several games in a row now, and they’re a great team,” said Bowden. “After we lost game one, our backs were agains the wall; we faced two elimination games and our guys fought hard. We played good when we needed to.”
York Institute ace Brody Choate shut the door on the Owls over the final three innings of game three to seal his team’s 3-2 victory and clinch their return to the district championship region tournament for the first time since 2022.
“Brody pitched in game one last week and rolled his ankle, and he went out three days later and threw the best game I’ve ever seen him pitch,” said Bowden. “It was a really good baseball game for a fan; as a coach, my hair got grayer. I trusted Brody enough to put him back out there in the seventh inning, and it was almost a surreal moment.”
The region tournament berth is the second in four years for seniors Blade Garrett, Drew Wright, Tanner Tallent, Preston Bow and Ethan Bowden.
“They were freshman the last time,” said Bowden. “We graduated a lot, and I don’t think a lot of people gave us a chance this year. They’ve worked extremely hard and are great leaders.”
Up next for the Dragons is the Region 3-2A tournament beginning later this week, where they’ll face White House Heritage on Friday at Watertown in a four-team double-elimination tournament. Watertown faces Liberty Creek in the other Friday game.
“We’re going to work on some mechanics the next few days, but the key right now is rest,” said Bowden. “It’s a grind; at this point of the year, we know what it takes.”
