Camp leads Ringgold to victory at Calhoun

CALHOUN, Ga. — Under most circumstances and with almost any other pitcher on the mound, Brent Tucker would have paid a visit just to settle things down.

With Nathan Camp toeing the rubber, however, there was no need. The Ringgold High School senior right-hander had just watched his infield defense fall apart with three consecutive errors to open the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers holding a 5-0 lead on Calhoun.

Camp escaped the jam with only one run crossing the plate and the Tigers (10-4) went on to win an important Region 6-AAA opener, 6-2.

“Nathan Camp was big on the mound, working through some errors and battling through a night when he didn’t have his best stuff,” Tucker said. “He just bowed his neck, stayed within himself and worked through the inning. That’s what you expect from a guy with that much experience, and that’s why we trust him so much.”

Camp, already 5-0 on the young season, allowed just two hits and struck out five with three walks while also striking the big blow at the plate with a two-run home run in the second inning. That was part of a four-run inning off Calhoun ace left-hander Davis Allen that also was helped by a Yellow Jackets error and a passed ball.

Allen struck out eight in just four innings, but each of his two walks — both to No. 9 hitter Wyatt Tennant — scored, the second coming on Camp’s two-out RBI single in the fourth that made it 5-0. Calhoun (6-3), though, looked primed to get right back in it after the three consecutive errors to start the fifth, but Camp battled through with a strikeout and two shallow fly balls.

“It’s no big deal,” Camp said of the defensive miscues. “I’ve made errors at second and short before, and I know when I make an error and my pitcher gets mad it only makes you play worse. You just have to lift them up and play through it.”

Camp allowed a sixth-inning one-out double to John Andrew Cash, who scored with two outs on another infield error. After Ringgold junior star Andre Tarver made it 6-2 with a solo homer leading off the seventh, Holden Tucker came on in the bottom half and, after a leadoff walk, fanned the final three Calhoun batters to end it.

“Tuck comes in — and we’ve been in this place where it’s 6-2 one minute and suddenly it’s 7-6 — and shuts it down, so it was a nice win all around,” Coach Tucker said. “It takes everybody in this type of game, and I mean everybody.”

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.