All-stars take third: Cookeville ousts Warren Co. from Babe Ruth district
After dropping their first game, Warren County’s 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars battled their way to a third-place finish at last week’s district tournament in Livingston.
The All-stars rebounded from a tough opener, a 12-2 loss to their counterparts from Sparta, and captured wins over Fentress County and Overton before a heartbreaking loss to Cookeville in the losers’ bracket final ended their run.
“It was tough, especially because we had a chance to move on to the finals with if we could’ve beaten Cookeville,” said Donnie Harris, one of the team’s coaches. “But we had a good group of guys, and they made a nice run. We just ended up a couple of runs short.”
Against Cookeville in Saturday’s losers’ bracket final, Warren County trailed 8-7 before loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. But an shallow flyout led to a double play, and Cookeville’s pitcher got the All-stars’ final batter to pop up to end the team’s tourney run.
Cookeville had taken an early lead in Saturday’s contest, getting on the board with a run in the first. But Warren County came back with three in the bottom of the second on hits by Coty Grissom, Brooks Palmer, Jordan Underhill and Cody Brown.
The Cookeville All-stars reacted with a four-run third, but Warren County came back with three more in their half of the inning to hold a close 6-5 lead, and maintained a one-run advantage after both teams scored single runs in the fourth.
Three straight Cookeville hits helped them tie the game 6-6 in the top of the fifth inning, and a two-out RBI single plated what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh.
Underhill finished 4-for-5 from the leadoff spot for the Warren County All-stars, while Grissom and Dillon Childers had a pair of hits each. Palmer and Ben Dunn also came through with base hits in the game.
Earlier Saturday, the All-stars roared into the losers’ bracket final with a big 13-3 win over Overton County.
Warren County used a seven-run fourth inning to help seal the win, and scored three more runs in the fifth to end the game via the mercy rule.
Every Warren County starter had at least one hit in the win, with Jordan Powers coming away with a 2-for-3 performance, scoring three runs. Underhill, who got the win on the mound, reached base three times in the lopsided victory.
Friday night the Warren County All-stars needed just five innings to dispose of Fentress County, as they scored six in the bottom of the fifth to win 14-3.
Warren County had seven hits in the win, and took advantage of several walks and Fentress County errors to pile up a significant scoreboard cushion for Coty Grissom, who earned the win by pitching four innings.