Bad start hurts McCallie in loss

LEBANON, Tenn. — That storybook finish the McCallie baseball team had been authoring hit a shredder Wednesday night.

The Blue Tornado fell behind early and eventually fell 8-2 to Brentwood Academy in the Division II-AA state tournament’s winners-bracket final.

To make matters worse for them, they had to turn around after only a brief respite to collect themselves and play the losers-bracket final, which started about 10 p.m. Eastern at Wilson Central. The opponent was Briarcrest Christian, which McCallie beat 1-0 Tuesday.

For coverage of the game, which was not complete at deadline, please visit timesfreepress. com.

The Blue Tornado had shelved a season of ups and downs once postseason pitching began, bouncing first Montgomery Bell Academy and then eliminating Baylor — both in best-of-three series — to punch their state ticket.

Wednesday’s inauspicious beginning was the result of an errant throw to first on a dropped third strike, a hit batter, a bunt single, a wild pitch and a groundout that handed Brentwood a 2-0 advantage.

“We couldn’t overcome it,” McCallie coach Tim Costo said before the second game. “We have to deal a lot better with adversity.”

While McCallie eventually got those two runs back, that adversity climaxed in the fourth, with Brentwood plating six on its way to the Blue Tornado Waterloo. Most demoralizing was that McCallie was within an out of getting through the top of the inning without giving up a run.

“That’s not good, when it goes bad it goes bad, but they were hitting it pretty well,” Costo said.

But the doors were left open, and the Eagles capitalized in a big way on four singles, an error and a double.

McCallie’s two runs came in the fifth and sixth innings on an RBI single by Corbin Brooksbank and a wild pitch.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.