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The Tullahoma High School baseball team beat Station Camp 7-4 in the Class 3A State Championship to bring the trophy home for the first time since 1990.

The game started with some bad luck for the Wildcats as Jayron Morris crushed a ball to left field in the top of the first that found a glove. Then in the bottom of the first the Bison hit two balls that found grass. After a wild pitch, they scored the two runs on sacrifice fly outs. Baylan Tuten struck out the last batter of the first inning. Colton Emory started the second off with a double to left field. Hunter Hogan flew out to center and Emory tagged up to advance to third, the throw to third got away and he scored on the error. The ‘Cats were down 2-1 going into the bottom of the second. Tuten made quick work of Station Camp, having a three-up, three down inning in just nine pitches.

Trevor Cole started the third off with a single through the left side of the infield. Andrew Fulmer put a bunt down to get Cole to second, but reached base for a bunt single. A passed ball during Morris’ at-bat put Cole and Fulmer at second and third. Cole scored on a ground ball and Fulmer advanced to third on the play. Tuten singled to score Fulmer and give Tullahoma a 3-2 lead. Evan Tomlin then singled to center field, but the two runners were left on base.

Tuten struck out the side in the bottom half, working around three walks. Hogan led off the fourth with a single. He stole second and third before an out was recorded. Philip Lemmon hit a fly ball to right field but Hogan was not sent home on a tag with that being the first out. Cole doubled on the next at bat scoring Hogan to make it 4-2 Wildcats. Tuten gave up a pair of singles in the top of the fourth, after he got the second out via strikeout he was relived of the pitching duties. Hogan took the mound. The first batter he faced singled to load the bases, but then he induced a ground ball to third baseman Mason Bratcher, who stepped on the bag to end the inning. Morris was unlucky again to start the fifth, he destroyed a ball to left field and for the second time it landed in the fielder’s glove. Tuten tripled down the right field line in the next at-bat. Tomlin was intentionally walked to set up a double play, but Emory continued his outstanding performance at the plate on the week with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2. The Bison drew a pair of walks to start the bottom half, then Hogan struck a batter out. Station Camp loaded the bases with a single and then scored a run on a sacrifice fly, but that was all they got. Hogan struck out the next batter, keeping it 5-3 going into the sixth.

Hogan hit another single to lead off the sixth inning. Avery Smith came in as a courtesy runner since Hogan was pitching. Smith made it to second on a wild pitch, then Lemmon hit a ground ball to the shortstop. Smith went to third and the throw from the shortstop hit him and got away, Smith scored and Lemmon made it to second on the fielder’s choice error. That was the only run scored for Tullahoma in the inning. Hogan struck out the first batter of the inning, the next walked. Hogan induced a ground ball for a fielder’s choice. Hogan accidently hit a batter before recording the last out. Tullahoma led 6-3 going into the final inning. Tuten walked and then Tomlin lined a doubled to score Tuten all the way from first for an extra insurance run. They led 7-3, needing just three outs for the win. Hogan struck out the first batter, then the Bison had back to back hits getting runners to second and third with just one out. They hit a sacrifice fly making it 7-4 and putting the tying run on-deck. The next batter reached on a hit by pitch. Bratcher then took the mound tasked with getting the last out, with the tying run now in the batter’s box. The first pitch he threw was taken for a ball. The second pitched was looked at for a ball, the next was swung on for strike two. The batter took the following pitch for a ball, then Bratcher got him to swing and miss at strike three to end the game.

Tullahoma had 10 hits in the game with four ‘Cats having multiple hits. Tuten, Tomlin, Cole and Hogan had two hits each. Fulmer and Emory had the other hits. They drew three walks, Tuten with two and Tomlin had one.

Tuten threw 78 pitches in 3.2 innings. He struck out six batters. Hogan tossed 74 in his three innings of work. He struck out four batters. Bratcher threw five pitches in hit 0.1 and struck out the batter.

“Gutsy performance by all three of them,” head coach Bryan Morris said. “Tuten has been battling a hip issue and we’ve been trying to work through it with him. I needed him to get through 3 or 4 innings with the lead, he did that. Hunter came in and he hasn’t thrown since the sectionals, he had some intense moments and made pitches when he needed to. I think he got a little tired and luckily we won game one the way we did and I had Bratcher in the backburner ready to go. He did an amazing job with that last hitter.”  

This was the last game for the seven seniors on the team; Cade Fanning, Avery Smith, Jayron Morris, Evan Tomlin, Colton Emory, Bobby Nichols and Derek Nolasco.

“These seniors man have been an amazing group to be a part of. Earlier in the year they clinched the 100 win mark for their career and they just kept rolling. It’s been amazing, I want to say we rattled off 22 straight wins to finish this year off. It’s just a testament to their work and their togetherness, it’s humbling to be a part of,” said Morris.

The Wildcats made it through the State bracket scoring at least seven runs in every game. They also only allowed 13 runs throughout the entire postseason, with seven coming in their four games of the State bracket in Murfreesboro. Tullahoma rattled off 22 straight wins to finish the season.

“They’ve done an amazing job,” Morris stated. “Our philosophy all year has been to attack the hitters because we have an outstanding defense and it stayed true all the way through. We’re very fortunate that our offense came alive in the last week or two and it was amazing to see. I think the stars aligned for us this year, I really do.”