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The Best of Times
1. 13 Year Old Tennessee State Baseball Champions
This may not seem significant in the scheme of life, but I had always
dreamed of competing at the state and national level and it never seemed possible. My
13-year-old all-star baseball team seemed good going into the tournament, but we were much
better than I thought. In past tournaments, we had only won the district tournament once.
This year, we barely won our first district game against St.Bethlehem - it was a game that
went into extra innings before we finally did win. We ended up winning the district
tournament and moved on to sub-state. I actually got to play in a sub-state tournament as
an 11-year-old when I played with the 12-year-olds. We got beat very handily at that time
and I was worried it could happen again. Fortunately, we won two games against Jackson and
moved onto the state tournament.
There were only four teams at state - Donelson Hartsville, Eagleton, and us. We got down
early against Hartsville and I thought we were in for an early exit. We were able to erupt
for 13 runs with two outs the next inning and put the first game out of reach. Our next
game was against Donelson who beat defending champions Eagleton. I pitched a winning
effort to move us undefeated into the finals. Eagleton came out of the loser's bracket and
ended up beating us to force a final game. I was scheduled to pitch and my arm throbbed
with pain because Billy Mortimore and I had alternated pitching every game since the start
of districts. So, I had already pitched two district games, a sub-state game, and now my
second game at state. The game was very close and we were actually down by a run going
into the last inning. We were able to rally and go up a run. The Eagleton crowd tried to
ice me in the last inning by yelling "pressure pitch" but I wouldn't be denied -
I pitched through the pain and adversity and struck out the side to give us a state
championship.
Winning the state championship was my first feeling of real and significant
accomplishment.