Eagles fall short in championship run

An end came to what some considered an unlikely championship run for the Seymour Eagles with a 7-1 loss to the Ripley Tigers in the semi-finals of the state tournament in Memphis last Friday. The Eagles finished the campaign 23-16 after having a record of 8-11 early in the season. Head Coach Brian McCord said that the key to his club’s turnaround was the leadership of his seven seniors and an overall effort that brought praise from almost everyone who watched the team play. “There wasn’t a coach that we played, and there were even some that we didn’t play, who didn’t come up to me and compliment us on the effort that this team played with,” said McCord after his team wrapped up tournament play with the loss to the eventual state champions. “The season has to end sometime,” McCord said. “There’s only one team in baseball that walks off the field a winner but with what this team has been through, you’d have to say that this has been a successful season. “The guy’s were hurt (after losing to Ripley). They got so close. Then they started saying that if we’d done this or got a hit there or made a play there, then things might have turned out different. I just told them that they were the last AA team playing from east of the Tennessee River. This group wasn’t even supposed to get out of the district tournament. They lost seven seniors last year from a team that should have played for a state championship.” Seymour lit the scoreboard first in the semi-final match up with Ripley. Nick Manis hit a sacrifice grounder to third to score Matt Pryor, who reached on a leadoff single down the first baseline from third to give Seymour their first and only lead, 1-0. Going into the tournament, Eagles’ pitching coach Robert Curry believed that this team was built for tournament baseball because of their deep pitching staff. Kevin Koeneman, Todd Sanzo and Manis are proven seniors with a wealth of big game experience under their belts. After those three, the Seymour starters get considerably less experienced as evidenced by the three sophomores that took the mound in the district tournament marathon at Gibbs. With a potential state championship on the line, Curry and McCord opted to go with a seldom-used senior to make the start against Ripley after the top three starters had made starts in the previous 48 hours. David Lunsford, a tall right-hander whose last appearance came in relief during the region tournament, found out Friday morning he was going to get the start. Curry said that he had confidence in Lunsford’s ability to pitch a big game based on an impressive performance against Maryville earlier in the season. Curry said that most of the other teams in the tournament are in the same boat as far as the availability of starting pitchers and he felt that actually Lunsford might give Seymour an advantage. Lunsford struck out the first Ripley batter looking and got a fly out to right field before giving up a two-out single that was followed by a two-run homer that bounced off the scoreboard in left field. Seymour missed a golden opportunity to retake control of the game later when they left Andy Trentham and Matt Pryor on second and third, respectively, in the top of the third. Ripley pulled away in the home half of the third when a leadoff single was followed by another two-run home run and back-to-back RBI singles to left field made the score 6-1. McCord said that the Ripley squad was already tasting victory during the rally. “About the third or fourth inning they (Ripley) started feeling it. You could see that look in their eyes when they realized that they had it in control.” Ripley added an insurance run in the fourth, a one-out RBI single that was preceded by consecutive walks. Seymour got a leadoff standup double from Adam Gossett in the top of the fifth but left him stranded when the next three batters went down in order. The Eagles put runners on the corners in the seventh when Chad Isbell reached on a leadoff single and Will Lynam singled to center field but Trentham and Pryor grounded out to end the game and the season for the Eagles 7-1.