Seymour third in state

The shot heard across the state Thanks to real time media and the luxury of cellular telephones, Aaron Lambert’s game-winning three-run homer traveled even faster and farther than it first appeared Wednesday, at the Briarcrest baseball field outside of Memphis. With the Seymour Eagles trailing Greenbrier 3-1 and down to their final three outs of the season, Logan McNulty picked up the Eagles first hit of the game with a stand-up double to lead off the home half of the seventh. Zack Smith then popped up for out one and the Greenbrier coaching staff opted to walk the dangerous Nick Manis to make Lambert, a sophomore with three career home runs under his belt, the man on the spot. Greenbrier thought that Lambert was a good candidate to hit into a game-ending double play, and with their pitcher cruising along with just one hit allowed during the game, it looked to be a smart decision at the time. But Lambert didn’t cooperate. In what first looked too good to be true for the solemn Seymour faithful, Lambert sent a fastball high into the West Tennessee air as the Seymour dugout rose to their feet and leaned over the railing staring at the ball that seemed to be hovering over left field. One of the Seymour coaches was coaxing the ball to “get out” when the crafty Norton, Greenbrier’s pitcher slumped down, putting his hands on his knees. Norton, who had put his team in position to advance to state semi-finals, by keeping the offensively-charged Eagles off balance with an assortment of off-speed pitches, was the first person to realize it was over. Lambert was trotting into second and McNulty and Manis around second and third, respectively, when the ball finally landed approximately five feet past the 365-mark on the left field wall. When Lambert’s feet touched the plate to officially score the game winning fourth run for Seymour, he was mobbed by his teammates and coaches. “We were basically two outs from going home,” said Seymour coach Brian McCord who admitted to having considered telling Lambert to lay down a sacrifice bunt to put two runners into scoring position. “I thought about just telling him to bunt and put Logan on third and Nick on second with two outs. That would have brought up Chad Isbell and that’s a lot of pressure to put on a senior who might be playing his last ball game. “So I said ‘let’s just let him swing’, and he hit the ball and it just kept going and going and going.” The dramatic walk-off home run prompted the gathering of Seymour fans to start dialing up their cell phones to find someone to share the news with over 400 miles from home. McCord said that he sympathized with the Greenbrier squad because he had seen his own playing career end on a walk-off homer. The coach said that Lambert’s shot marked the first time that he had ever been on the winning side of such a dramatic game-winning play. “A walk-off home run ended my playing career,” McCord stated. “It happened at the National Baseball Congress tournament in Wichita, Kansas, and it was pretty much signaled the end of my days as a baseball player. I’ve been on the losing end of a couple of other walk-off home runs but that was the first time that I’ve been on the winning side of one of those.”