Nashville Christian Sports

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MURFREESBORO — Friendship scored six runs in the third and nine in the fourth, including four homeruns, to beat Nashville Christian for the second night in a row in the Class A baseball tournament.

The Commanders had 14 hits and finished the game on a single from Mitchell Miller and a run from Matt Goodner in the bottom of the fifth to take the 16-6 victory.

“We just all came out of our hitting slump,” Miller said. “I don’t know how to explain it, we just put it together. We knew it was win or go home.”

Friendship defeated Nashville Christian Tuesday night 2-1 and lost 13-0 early Wednesday to Decatur Count- Riverside, which the Commanders (30-6-1) will face today at 3 p.m.

“I’ve seen (the hitting), I know it’s there,” Friendship Coach John McNeal said. “But it had me worried. I do feel better now going into tomorrow.”

The four home runs came from Goodner, Miller, John Markham and Hardie Sorrells.

Every run in the game came after an hour-and-a-half rain and lightning delay that suspended play after the end of the first and forced Nashville Christian starting pitcher Cody Hartley from the game.

“Rain delay or not Hartley probably wouldn’t have been able to go as long as he wanted to,” Eagles’ coach Ben Williams said. “His arm has been sore a lot. But that doesn’t take anything away from (Friendship).”

Nashville Christian ends the season with a 25-10 record after its first trip to the state tournament.

“I told my seniors, ‘don’t be ashamed,’ this is the farthest our team has ever been,” Williams said. “They set the bar for what it’s going to be like from here on out.”

Story from the Tennessean.com

MURFREESBORO — Friendship Christian won 2-1 over Nashville Christian, scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh at in the first round of Class A State Baseball Tournament.

Chris Hall hit a line drive to Nashville Christiancenter fielder Parker Lockhart with two outs in the seventh inning. A fielding error by Lockhart resulted in Kyle Wood scoring from second.

“It’s a heartbreaker,” Nashville Christian coach Ben Williams said. “It’s definitely a tough way to lose.”

Eagles’ pitcher Davis Fleming allowed just two hits.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more from a senior pitching in maybe one of the last games he’ll ever pitch,” Williams said. “I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

The Commanders took a 1-0 lead in the third when Fleming walked in Drew Erie, who reached base after being hit by a pitch. Nashville Christian knotted things up at 1-1 following a home runby Cody Hartley in the fifth inning.

Brennan Swindoll was the winning pitcher for the Commanders. Swindoll pitched a completegame for Friendship, giving up four hits while striking out five.

“We didn’t hit the ball well, but we came out with the victory, and that’s all that matters.”

“We’ll take it anyway we can get it,” Friendship Christian coach John McNeal said. “Their kid did a great job on the mound, but we didn’t swing the bats very well. I told the guys, it doesn’t matter how it ended. It’s a win.”

Friendship Christian advances to the winner’s bracket and will play Riverside in the second round of the tournament, while Nashville Christian will face Harriman in the loser’s bracket.

Eagles will play Friendship Christian at Murfreesboro Riverdale high school at 6:30 Tuesday night.

http://friendshipchristian.org/

CLASS A Scores from last  Friday & Saturday:

Boyd Buchanan 6, Monterey 3
Friendship 7, Lookout Valley 1
Nashville Chr. 6, Summertown 3
Adamsville 10, Greenfield 9
Saturday
Eagleville 2, Perry Co. 1
Hancock Co. 12, Rockwood 2
Harriman 9, Unaka 7
Decatur Co. 8, Union City 2

2010 TSSAA STATE BASEBALL TOURNAMENTS INFO

By JUSTIN LAMB/jlamb@c-dh.net
Read Story from The Columbia Daily Herald

SUMMERTOWN — There will be a new Class A State Baseball champion.

Reigning state champion Summertown was denied a chance to defend its crown after falling 6-3 to Nashville Christian in the Sectionals Friday.

“It’s an honor to be able to defeat a team like this,” said Nashville Christian coach Ben Williams. “We tell our guys if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best and I can’t say enough about our guys.”

In denying Summertown (32-5) its third straight state tournament appearance, NCS will be making its Spring Fling baseball debut. Nashville Christian will open play in the state tournament Tuesday in Murfreesboro.

“Making it to the tournament is a first for our school,” Williams said. “We are going to enjoy it and try to keep moving on.”

The foundation for Nashville Christian’s upset win was laid in the first inning when Davis Fleming blasted a two-run home run to give NCS a 2-0 lead.

“That’s what we wanted to do,” Williams said. “We wanted to come in and show that we weren’t afraid.”

Summertown trimmed its deficit to 2-1 in the third inning when Jordan Chard scored on an errant throw.

An inning later, Summertown took its only lead of the game when Ben Lyons blasted a two-run home run to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead.

However, the lead was short-lived as Nashville Christian tied game in the fifth inning as Brooks Taylor scored on a perfectly place bunt by Jamie Edwards.

“That’s something we work on everyday,” Williams said. “There was no question in my mind, we’ve done it over and over again. It was just a matter of execution.”

NCS took the lead for good in the seventh inning on an RBI single from Taylor. Four batters later, Joe Whelan, who had struck out in his last two at bats, plated two insurance runs by ripping a double to rightcenter field.

“I was thinking about pinch hitting (for Whelan) and he got up there and I decided to leave him,” Williams said. “He came up with a big hit and hits it to the gap and pretty much seals the deal.”

The three-run lead was more than enough for Cody Hartley, who capped off his complete game win by retiring Summertown in order in the seventh inning.

Hartley allowed three runs — one earned — on just three hits with six strikeouts and a walk.

“It’s been him all year that has put the team on his shoulders and carried us,” Williams said. “This is just another example of how good, how talented and how special of a kid he is.”

Taylor (3 runs, RBI) and Fleming (2 runs, 2 RBIs) both had two hits to lead Nashville Christian.

Alex Huddleston, Blake Gray and Lyons (2 RBI) had the lone hits for Summertown, while Thomas Huddleston took the complete game loss giving up six runs on six hits with 11 strikeouts and five walks.

Story created May 22, 2010 – 01:17:09 EDT.

Game Summary

Joe Whelan hit a two-run double as Nashville Christian (22-7) scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to beat defending Class A champion Summertown (29-5). Thomas Huddleston struck out 11 for Summertown.

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