CLEVELAND — The chip on the shoulder of the White County baseball team has been a pretty big one all season.
In a tough Region 7-3A, the Warriors probably were not among the early conversations to make a lot of noise.
But after Monday’s 5-1 win over Class 3A No. 10 Cherokee Bluff in the opening game of their huge best-of-three region series at Warriors Field, they are showing that the preseason talk was just that.
“Our mindset all season has been to just work hard every game and prove people wrong,” senior pitcher Caleb Reddy said after tossing six innings and yielding just one run on three hits to get the win. “We’re just going to try to continue to work hard and finish the season strong and hopefully into the playoffs.”
The win for the Warriors (17-7, 12-4 Region 7-3A) moved them into sole possession of second place ahead of idle West Hall. It also puts them 3 1/2 games ahead of Cherokee Bluff (15-9, 7-6 Region 7-3A) with the two teams set for games on Wednesday and Friday.
One more win for White County in the series would clinch a home playoff series for the Warriors.
“This was a big one,” White County coach Jim Waits said. “We talked about you have to get the first one, especially in a big three-game series. Now we don’t have to go to their place having to win.”
Reddy was in control most of the way allowing just three baserunners through the first five innings. After a single by the Bears’ Dylan Kautz to lead off the game, catcher Dylan Sargent caught Kautz trying to steal third to end the inning.
“That was huge for us,” Reddy said. “That really gave us a lot of energy.”
Bears’ starter Clay Tyas, however, kept the game scoreless working out of big jams in each of the first two innings stranding three baserunners and Lucas Tritt worked out of a mess in the third and the pair held the Warriors to 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position (RISP).
But White County finally got to Tritt in the fourth. Dylan Sargent reached on an error, and after a sacrifice bunt moved him to third, he scored on Bailee Patterson’s double to right center for a 1-0 lead. A pair of two-out walks set up a bases clearing double by J. Ben Haynes to push the lead to 4-0. The Warriors added a run in the fifth on a high-bouncing RBI infield single from Mark Daniels.
Bluff’s only run came in the sixth when Caleb Miele scored on a White County error. The Bears had the tying run at the plate after another Warriors miscue but Reddy got Bryce England to ground into a double play to snuff out the potential big inning.
The bottom of the White County order was 3-for-8 with two RBI and a run scored.
