By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Every Tennessee public school baseball team wants to reach that Regional Monday to have a chance to win and reach Sectionals.
The past few years the Brighton Cardinals have earned home games as District 13-3A champions. The 2021 season fell into place — Brighton Baseball Field. But previous trips to the Regional Semifinals whether under former Skipper Michael Wickersham or current Head Coach Ryan Wood have resulted in the season coming to an end.
But 2021 was guaranteed to be a different outcome. Maybe because the Regional contest against the Bartlett Panthers was moved to Sunday afternoon. Behind the dominated pitching performance of senior Logan Rushing, solid defense and timely hitting the Cardinals finally advance outlasting the Panthers 3-2.
“This feels amazing,” Wood said. “These guys have been grinding all year long for the last four years. Since these guys were freshmen we’ve made it to this Region game. Been trying to win it and finally got it done. Logan pitched a hack of a game.
“We picked each other up, the kids battled back,” he added. “It didn’t matter I just knew if we could get to this game we were going to win it this year. I had a good feeling about it. The kids did a great job and the assistant coaches did a great job. Logan pitched his tail off. You can’t say anything else about that.”
The Cardinals entered the game winners of three in a row and champions of their district. Rushing took the ball and kept Bartlett scoreless for three innings. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.
All season and his whole coaching career, Wood preaches to his players “win the inning.”
He employed his Cardinals to do it in the fourth inning sparking a rally.
Ben Lavelle got things started with a single. His teammate Colton Bryant followed with a base hit. That set the table for Ethan Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer executed a bunt that brought home the tying run. Two batters later Andrew Davis drove home a run with a fielder’s choice to make the tally 2-1 in favor of Brighton.
The Panthers tried to win the fifth inning tying the game at 2-2. The Cardinals wouldn’t be outdone scoring a run to regain the lead for good.
With the bases loaded with Cardinals Bryant hit into a double play. But with no outs, it was good enough to score the go-ahead run.
Thanks to Rushing that RBI transformed into the winning run. The Panthers were forced into ground balls and fly outs leading to the Cardinals advancing in Regionals.
“Coach Wick got us back on that winning track getting us back to the Monday night,” Wood said. “We got back in 2019 and last year the COVID happened. We had a lot of seniors on this team, a lot of talent. If we could put it all together for the Monday night or the Region game, we could get it done. We did and I am excited for the kids and all of our coaches. They worked their tails off all year long.”
The hard work had paid off with the Cardinals one win away from reaching the State Tournament.
“They refuse to lose,” Wood concluded. “They continue to battle no matter what the odds are. They will fight until the last out is made. And Hopefully that is in Murfreesboro. So let’s go get it.”
