GRAY DEYOSports Writer

For the second year in a row the Tullahoma Wildcats baseball team is on its way to state. They beat Soddy Daisy High School twice in a best of three series on Thursday, winning 1-0 and 5-0.

No trip to the state comes easy. It is all earned. And with the two performances the Wildcats displayed, they certainly earned their bus trip to Murfreesboro. They played lights out, especially in the pitching department.

Baylan Tuten started the first game on the mound for Tullahoma and made sure to make his mark. He pitched eight innings and allowed only three hits. Tuten allowed no real trouble on the base pass until his final inning of work. The Trojans got a leadoff single to start the inning. They followed it up with a sacrifice bunt to advance their runner into scoring position. Tuten forced the next batter to softly hit a fly out to left field to get Soddy down to their final out in the frame.

Senior Trojan Jake Jackson then stepped up to the plate and was 0-2 with a walk at that point. He worked a 2-1 count against Tuten, found a pitch he liked, and sent a ball slicing down the left foul line. Junior Wildcat outfielder Brycen Campbell raced to try to snag the ball that was pulling away from him. At that same time, the Soddy player who was on second base was about to tag home. Every Wildcat fan gasped at Grider Stadium as Campbell’s legs left the ground.

The junior dove through the air with his arm fully extended and saved game one.

Campbell raised his glove to his teammates to show that he caught what seemed to be a certain RBI for Jackson.

In the bottom of the ninth with the score still tied at a goose egg, the Wildcats started to get momentum. Their first three batters–JD Schmisseur, Andrew Zebick, and Parke Fulks–all reached base. This loaded the bases with no outs, leaving no one other than the hero of the eighth inning to try to become the hero of the ninth.

Campbell stepped in the box and laid down a bunt on the first pitch he saw. He raced to first, as his teammate, who pinch ran for Schmisseur, Xander Pogue, tagged home. Campbell’s heroics struck again. The Wildcats won in a walkoff from the junior’s bunt single.

In game two, for Tullahoma Grayson Waller got the start. Like Tuten he wheeled and dealed for most of the game, but found himself in one bad jam.

In the bottom of the second inning the Trojans first three batters that faced Waller reached base. The senior pitcher for the Wildcats was now in a situation where if he was able to get out of the inning only allowing one run, it would be considered a great escape. Well for the outside eye anyway.

Waller liked the idea of hanging up a 0 on the scoreboard instead.

The senior’s experience shined in the inning. He executed pitch after pitch, generated two soft pop-ups, and then framed a pitch in the strike zone to get a strikeout and end the inning.

The offense the Wildcats got in this game to help stamp their ticket to state took place in the fifth and seventh inning. They scored four out of their five runs in the two frames. This was generated from a two RBI single from Phillip Lemmon, and a two RBI double from Andrew Fulmer.

Tullahoma players will now not have to worry about playing a season-defining game on their graduation day. They will start their road to back-to-back state titles next week.