Shady Spring – Thatcher Poteat is on his last tour as a Tiger.
The senior shortstop made sure to open it with a banger.
Poteat drove in seven runs, including the last four of the game on a grand slam as Shady Spring defeated Nicholas County 16-6 in six innings Tuesday in the Region 3, Section 2 tournament in Shady.
With the win Shady advances into the winner’s bracket where it will face Independence on Wednesday in Coal City.
Early the Tigers seemed destined for the result it got – a run-rule win – but the visitors didn’t go down easily.
“We knew this would be a tough game,” Shady head coach Jordan Meadows said. “With Rylee (Nicholas) pitching for them tonight we knew we’d have to come out here and have one of our best games. It’s sectional time. Everybody’s record is the same now and everyone is dangerous.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the small ball though. We bunted some guys around and they made some errors that we were able to score off of. That last inning we just got on a roll.”
Shady drew first blood when Alex Johnston drew a two-out walk in the first, scoring when Josh Lovell smacked a double that went past the diving centerfielder. The Tigers added three more in the third, capitalizing on two Grizzly errors.
Unfortunately for the hosts they returned the favor in the fourth.
The first two Grizzlies reached on walks to open the frame, with the first scoring when J.P. Girod reached on a throwing error. The third free pass of the inning loaded the bases for Nicholas with no outs. Shady pitcher Alex Johnston nearly escaped the jam by retiring the next two on strikeouts but the second error of the inning allowed Girod to score. An RBI-single from Garrett Kesterson followed by an RBI-walk knotted the game at 4-4.
Johnston limited the damage there, inducing a lineout with the bases loaded but the pressure was back on the Tigers.
“Once it was 4-4 I told them it was a new ball game,” Meadows said. “I told them we had to hit our pitches because we were just swinging at what we could to get some runs, but we just needed to settle in there and they did.”
Shady responded with five hits in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs and never relinquishing the lead again. The Grizzlies had a chance to answer in the fifth when the first two batters reached, but David Young came in to relieve Johnston, retiring the next three batters in order without allowing a run.
“David is probably one of the most consistent pitchers we have,” Meadows said. “We just told him to throw strikes and let them hit it if they can – let’s have some fun. He came in there and shut them down. He’s not overpowering but he’s going to get the job done no matter what.”
Shady added two more runs in the fifth to go up 10-4. Nicholas responded with two of its own in the sixth, but Young stranded the bases loaded and the Shady bats took care of the rest in the bottom of the frame.
Back-to-back singles and back-to-back walks helped the hosts load the bases and score a run to kick off the bottom of the sixth. The first out came on a Colten Tate sac-fly that made it 12-6. Tyler Mackey drew the third walk of the frame and Poteat ended the game with a grand-slam over the fence in left field.
“Hats off to Shady for being big tonight,” Nicholas County head coach D.J. Martin said. “They came through big to put us away. I thought both teams played really hard and kept fighting through it. We walked a lot of batters though. The zone was consistent all night and that’s all you can ask for. We just didn’t adjust and walks and errors hurt us. Now with our backs against the wall we’ve got to regroup.”
Shady will travel to Independence on Wednesday with first pitch slated for 6 p.m. Nicholas County falls into the loser’s bracket and will host Liberty Wednesday with the season on the line for both teams.
Email: tylerjackson@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
NC: 000 402 – 6 5 4
SS: 103 426 – 16 11 2
Pitching – NC: Rylee Nicholas (4 innings), Andrew Triplett (2 innings) and Jordan McKinney; SS: Alex Johnston (4 innings), David Young (2 innings) and Parker Redden. WP: Johnston, LP: Nicholas. Hitting – NC: Garrett Kesterson 2-4 (RBI), Grayson Kesterson 1-2 (RBI), Kendall Giles 2-3 (2B, RBI); SS: Tyler Mackey 1-3 (RBI), Thatcher Poteat 3-5 (HR, 2B, 7 RBI), Josh Lovell 1-2 (RBI), Parker Redden 2-4 (RBI), Evan Belcher 2-4 (RBI), Adam Richmond 1-3, MAson Palmateer 1-3 (RBI), Colten Tate 1-3 (RBI).