Friday was a beautiful day, a bit on the warm side, but a delightful day. The Rebels were going to play for one of eight Class A state playoff spots with a substate encounter at Adamsville.
I can remember getting ready for the game, gathering the notepads, making sure the pens I had worked, making sure the camera I had was charged up. Long-time pal Tim McBride and I made the road trip. McBride would turn out to be the official mckenzierebels.com chauffer during this baseball adventure, which was a dangerous but fun prospect. More on that later.
We arrived at Adamsville well ahead of game time. I had covered a couple of games at Adamsville before. In 1993, Dresden played the Cardinals in a winner-take-all substate baseball game. But in those days, it was considered the first round of the state tournament. There were eight games in each class to qualify for four spots in a double-elimination state tournament. In those days, if you lost in the regional championship game, you were done. Only regional champs advanced. Now all that has changed. Regional runners up get to hit the road for sectionals and there are eight place settings at state. Now there are two four-team pools. Pool play is a double elimination format and the winners of each pool play in a winner-take-all title game.
I recall that 1993 game at Adamsville. The Lions jumped out to a lead against the Cards, but Adamsville had too much firepower and Dresden ran out of pitching. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy place to win. But this was going to be my fifth substate baseball game. And everytime I covered team that won this round, they won a state title. I remember going to Sky View Academy and watching Dresden lose to the Hawks in 1986. A year later, that same Sky View team, coached by soon-to-be legendary baseball coach Phil Clark, came to Dresden, defending a state title. Dresden had essentially the same team returning, too. The Hawks had a potent team and a second baseman who was being recruited by the Miami Hurricanes in Scott Duncan. But the Lions featured future NBA star Popeye Jones and a fireballing righty named Peanut Winn on the hill. In addition, junior catcher John Paker, a future Tennessee Athletic Coaches Association baseball state player-of-the-year winner, was solid offensively and defensively. Jeff Baker was on second. Bart Laws played third, David Jones was at shortstop, Bobby Irvine was the right fielder, Darren Williams was in center and Brian Jackson played left.
Sky View was thinking about defending a state title, Dresden was thinking about winning a baseball game. It was a solid effort by the Lions on offense and defense and Dresden won that game 3-0 at Wilson Park in front of 300 fans and a regional radio broadcast. It was a thrilling time. Dresden, of course, went on to defeat Upperman, McKenzie and Johnson City University High to win the first rural West Tennessee state baseball title under the three-classification format.
A year later, the same two teams got together at Sky View for another shot at the title. Dresden held the crown this time and trotted Winn to the mound. Winn had suffered a severe knee injury in the football season opener at Martin-Westview, which affected him in basketball and to some extent baseball. Yes, he was good to go, but his fastball had lost something and Sky View teed off on him. DHS coach Jeff Kelley brought in Jones, who was the Mr. Basketball winner that year, to put out the fire. Winn had better stuff than Jones, but Jones was a name and at 6-8, a bit intimidating. The Hawks had no answer for him, but they did have a 6-2 lead after just two innings. Errors were costly, too.
Dresden was tight to begin with and that just magnified the uncharacteristic miscues. Jones hit a two-run double in the top of the seventh and the tying run was at the plate, but Jones was left at second and Franklin Road Academy eventually won the 1988 crown.
But on this particular day, it was the McKenzie Rebels playing for a chance to go to the Dance. And it was a nice day. Warm, but not awful. As was mentioned, we drove to Adamsville. I knew where the school was, but it had been a while. I covered a basketball substate game there in 1994 and in 2004, I watched McKenzie dispatch the Cardinals in a Region 6-2A football game 35-14.
One thing that is curious about Adamsville: you get to the city limit sign and you still feel like you have 15 miles before you get to downtown. And the school was in the direction of Selmer. Easy to find, but when you hadn’t been in a while, things slip your mind. But McBride was Magellan’s equal on the day and we pulled into the parking lot well ahead of the first pitch. It was there we encountered Larry Joe Smith, current MHS basketball coach and father of one of the seniors, Marshall Smith. We checked in at the gate with Adamsville assistant principal and old pal Mike Kimmons. Mike is a class guy and was more than hospitable. He put us on the list, we checked out the field, milled around a bit, then decided to go look around Adamsville.
Smith wanted to see a golf course and an antique store there in town. The antique store was closed, but we did tour the golf course and a few neighborhoods. Our sojourn took us all the way to the Tennessee River when we decided to change course and head back to the school. We parked at a good spot, but anywhere you park at Adamsville is a pretty good hike from the ballpark. But I once heard from a UT-Martin security guard who said, “there isn’t a parking problem at UTM, just a lazy problem.”
His suggestion was that there was plenty of parking if you didn’t mind walking. We made our way back to the ballpark. I went out to the field and talked to Maddox and a few of the players. Brice Priestley was in centerfield, getting a feel for the dimensions, the background and the wall. Other players were stretching, doing a walk-about and talking about the field, opponent and game. Adamsville has a top-notch facility with a few quirks. There are power lines that connect the light standards in the outfield.
“See that wire there?” asked Drew Hayes, pointing to one of the power lines connecting the lights in right and right-center, about 50 feet or so in the air. “That’s where (Lexington slugger Jonathan) Keck hit one. It was over that wire.” That story was related to me three other times. That seemed like an ominous feat, but the field looked bigger than it was. It was sort of an optical illusion, but a blast of that magnitude was still worthy of respect.
After my brief survey of the coaches and players, it seemed that the Rebels were confident, loose and ready to bring the A game. It would be curious to see how Adamsville would respond. Had the Cardinals won their big game by beating Jackson Christian School in the Region 8A title game? Or did they have more in the tank?
The game began and it seemed that McKenzie might have been a bit pensive, nervous, tight and Adamsville had a strategy to combat Drew Hayes. They were looking for first-pitch fast balls, sitting on what is known as “dead red.” The first nine Adamsville batters put the ball in play six times with a pair of hits, and error and a run scored.
That’s when Hayes and Drew Brown put their heads together and made a bit of an adjustment. Both knew that Adamsville was waiting on that first-pitch fast ball, so they talked it over and decided to change up the pitching inventory.
"They were teeing off on the first pitch fastball and they were looking for the fastball on the first pitch," Hayes said. "Drew and I talked about it, that we needed to change it up. Drew did a good job catching pitches and making changes. He made some good calls." Once they made the adjustment, Hayes was almost unhittable. All he needed was a lead. He’d soon get it and in the most unlikely of places.
With one out, nine-hole batter John Kermit Laughrey did the last thing many expected. He belted a rocket shot that went three-quarters up the way in the outfield trees, easily clearing the high wall and still arching upward when it left the yard for his second career home run. His blast went just under the wire that connected the outfield light poles. It was a shot, to be sure, but it also served as a shot in the arm for the Rebels' confidence. In short, or in long, when you consider how far the dinger traveled, it started the carousel for MHS.
"Kermit hit that a ton," Maddox said, widening his eyes and looking to the place where the ball went, with a glow of admiration. "That got us rolling."
Laughrey earned the nickname “Big Swo,” why it’s not clear, when he belted his first career home run at Gleason his junior year. His second shot may have broken the sound barrier. Laughrey wasn’t sure what had happened when he hit it. Perhaps he was the only one in the yard that didn’t know it was out.
"I didn't know it was out, but when I looked up and saw it was out, I quit running," he said. "After that, I thought now we'd start hitting the ball." "Swo's ball was a shot," said Hayes. "That really ignited us and got us rolling. After that, they didn't score another run and we kept the snowball rolling."
"We just didn't have anything to get us going, then Kermit hits the ball 400 feet," Maddox said with a laugh. "That got us going."
After Kermit’s blast, the Rebels started to pile it on. Beau Brown walked and took second on a passed ball. Drew Hayes was next and he drilled an RBI single to deep left-center that almost left the yard. MHS led 2-1 and was never threatened after that. Kermit got it rolling and the Rebels had given Hayes a lead to pitch with.
"Give Drew the ball and the lead and he buckles down," said Maddox.
The Rebel defense bailed Hayes out early. In the first inning, third baseman Parker Jones knocked down a hot shot, picked it up, flung it over to Justin Wilson at second who whirled and relayed to Laughrey at first. It was a huge defensive stand that shut down a Cardinal rally. There would be another crucial defensive play later.
"It seems like we have a whole lot more confidence on defense," Jones said. "On plays to me, like that double play, I just try to make the play so I don't disappoint my teammates or myself."
"That double play with Parker was massive," said Maddox. "I was hoping to just get one, but Wilson made a perfect turn at second. Parker battled at third."
In the MHS fourth, Wilson walked and took second on Brice Priestley's bunt single, which proved to be heroic as well. They both advanced on an error, then Craig Broadbent grounded out, but drove in the third McKenzie run. Laughrey followed with a sacrifice fly for his second RBI of the game and a 4-1 lead. McKenzie tacked two more runs on the board in the fifth. Beau Brown walked and reached third on Hayes' double. Jonathan Wheat walked for the second time in the game, then Glenn "Bugs" Smith lifted an RBI fly ball to right to score Beau Brown and send Hayes to third. Then Wilson executed a perfect squeeze bunt to plate Hayes and lift MHS to a 6-1 lead.
Adamsville wouldn't quit and gambled many times through the course of the ballgame, sending runners and trying to build any kind of momentum it could. In the Cardinal sixth, the leadoff man reached on an error, then tried to take second base with no outs. On the pitch, Hayes fanned the hitter and Drew Brown pegged the would-be base thief for a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play. That twin killing erased the error and squelched what could have been a Cardinal rally with six outs left in their magazine. Instead, Jones scooped up the ground ball for a routine 5-to-3 third out. The strike-em-out-throw-em-out was huge.
For a while, sophomore catcher Drew Brown struggled to throw out Adamsville base stealers. And the Cardinals were trying to get anything they could going, so they weren't shy about making attempts at Brown's expense.
"Drew's defense behind the plate is superb," said Maddox. "He blocks pitches well and calls a great game and when he throws properly, he has a great arm."
Adamsville found that out the hard way. Brown’s rope was the tail end of the twin killing in the sixth.
"That was the biggest throw of the night and it was right on the money," said Hayes.
"It was big," said Brown. "There were no outs and a runner on first and it could have been the start of a big inning for them. The strikeout was big and the throw a was big." Brown said the defense picked up with every play.
"Everybody was making plays," he said, echoing Jones' notion. "The defense as a whole did great."
In the Rebel seventh, Hayes, having missed a prime opportunity on a second-pitch curve ball, went to work with two strikes. The deuce hung over the plate and soon, Hayes hung it over the wall for a 7-1 lead. Wheat singled after that, but that was pretty much that.
“I had two strikes and just cut it loose,” Hayes said of his rare curve ball tater. In the seventh, Hayes struck out the side, smiled and looked for his teammates, who seemed to be stunned that the game was over. After a pause, the team celebrated their victory on the infield grass, then carried the party on in the outfield. The Rebels were on their way to the ‘Boro to see if they could fulfill their quest for a championship.
The victory seemed to set very well with Maddox, who was beaming from ear to ear like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
"I don't know if has sunk in yet and I can't stop smiling," said Maddox, who was in his second year as the Rebel coach. "These guys are great and they don't require a lot of coaching; this bunch battles and they leave it all on the field and I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys."
For the first time in 19 years, the Rebels would head to the state baseball tournament.
"You know, we've been to state in football and everything, but that's not the championship," Hayes said. "Now we are in Murfreesboro and we have a chance to win a championship."
But it won't be easy, said Brown.
"We have to play good defense no matter who's on the mound and we have to get big hits in key situations," he said.
It was a hitter's market for the Rebels on the day. Laughrey, who could have been a nominee for player of the game, had there been such an honor in the game, was 1-3 with two RBI and played solid defense at first base. Beau Brown was 0-2 with two walks and two runs scored. Hayes was 4-4 with two doubles, a homer and a single with two RBI. Jonathan Wheat was 0-2 but had a patient eye and walked twice. Bugs Smith was a productive 0-4, putting the ball in play each time up and driving in a run. He also reached on an error. Justin Wilson was 0-2 with a walk and a textbook sacrifice squeeze bunt to drive in a run. Brice Priestley almost left the yard with a colossal two-base hit in the second. He later reached on an infield bunt hit that advanced runners. Craig Broadbent was 0-3, but was productive as well with an RBI.
"This feels great. It's unbelievable," said Hayes, who struck out nine and scattered three hits for the victory. He had no idea how much more unbelievable things would get.
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