MURFREESBORO – When trying to survive the loser’s bracket at the State Baseball Tournament, a head coach has to transform into a manager.
While the main objective is to win to have a chance at the championship, the leader of the program must keep up with pitch counts, match ups and when to visit the mound.
All that was on display Wednesday evening on the Siegel Baseball Field for Bartlett Panther Skipper Josh Stewart. Jumping ahead 12-4 over the Summit Spartans in the second inning, Stewart started to pay closer attention to the numbers in his score book under pitch count.
Stewart and the Panthers survived 12-7 over the Spartans to advance to play the Farragut Admirals in the Semifinals.
“You kind of hit a Catch-22 to be honest,” Stewart said. “You’ve got the pitch count but you’ve got to have enough pitching to withstand two (games) for the next day. You’ve got to go into this game with the mindset of winning. But you’ve got to win two tomorrow. But will you have enough arms to do that.”
The arm starting for the Panthers in the elimination game was Brayden Matthews. The junior got off to a rocky start with Summit putting up four runs in the top of the second inning.
Trailing 4-1, Bartlett put together an 11-run second inning highlighted by a Matthews homer.
The Panthers loaded the bases with Caleb Fuller getting hit by a pitch, Benjamin Banyon drawing a walk and Jalen Fithian hitting a single.
Andrew Baldelli drove in the first run of the frame with a fielder’s choice. Cole Smith followed with an infield single to make the score 4-3.
After Brayden Arendale forced a bases-loaded walk to deadlock the game, Matthews stepped up to the plate with a chance to give himself some run support.
“I was just trying to make connect,” Matthews recalled. “I thought it was a line drive – just a routine line drive. I was going to try to get two bases. Then I heard everybody yelling. I looked over and I saw it went over. It was a good moment. It hadn’t happened in a while since middle school.”
Matthews’ grand slam made the score 8-4 and swung the momentum in the favor of the Panthers. Fuller added to the advantage with a two-run base hit. Then the inning concluded with Smith crushing a double to drive in a pair of runners to make the tally 12-4.
Summit starched out runs in fifth, sixth and seventh to trim the deficit to 12-9.
“You’ve got to manage to have enough to get through each day,” Stewart said. “It puts you into a little bind. You start having different kids out there at different times looking to get outs. When you’ve got a big lead like that, you’ll trade outs for runs. Next thing you know you’ve got the tying run on deck.”
Peyton Smith, the fourth Bartlett pitcher of the day, was able to record the final out and give the Panthers another day to play.
The Admirals beat the Panthers in the opening round game. After Farragut outlasted Summit, the Admirals were one victory away from winning the Upper Bracket of Class 3A.
The Panthers beat Science Hill and Summit to earn a rematch with Farragut, having to beat them twice to reach the title game.
“Get rest, get rest and come out tomorrow trying to win every pitch,” Stewart concluded. “We’re going to battle with them is what we’re going to tell them.”
Farragut was too much to handle in the Semifinal round Thursday afternoon. The Admirals defeated Bartlett to end the Panthers’ 2019 campaign.
