'Toppers knock off Indians to win District 1-4A crown

JOHNSON CITY — Through injuries and close losses, Science Hill coach Ryan Edwards never wavered from the main objective of getting his team playing its best baseball in the month of May. When the month of May finally rolled around, the best version of the Hilltoppers arrived along with it. After being swept by Dobyns-Bennett in the regular season, second-seeded Science Hill knocked off the top-seeded Indians for the second time in the span of three days on Saturday, earning a hard-fought 6-5 decision that wrapped up the District 1-4A tournament championship. The Hilltoppers and Indians will both advance to the Region 1-4A tournament next week. The Tribe rallied to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning before Science Hill's Hagan Gibson finished off a complete game victory by getting D-B's Taylor Blankenship to fly out to left field, which kicked off a wild celebration inside TVA Credit Union Ballpark. "He just battled the entire day," Edwards said of Gibson, who earned a spot on the all-tournament team. "They never got a big inning off of him. That's the key. The thing about it is if you can stay out of the big inning and your offense can do some things, you've got a great chance to win, and that's exactly what happened." Gibson didn't get rattled after the Tribe plated two runs in the top of the first inning, and he was equally unshakable with the go-ahead run at the plate in the top of the seventh. "They were just putting good swings on it," Gibson said. "The last out is the hardest to get, and I just had to stay focused, stay calm and go at the next hitter." In the long history of the District 1 tournament, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more unlikely tournament MVP than Science Hill's Owen Lewis. Lewis started the season nursing a severe hamstring injury that cost him the first 13 games of the season. Even after he got healthy, Lewis had to work his way into Science Hill's lineup. After a few spot starts during the regular season, his positive impact became impossible for the coaching staff to ignore. "Every time we kept putting him in, good things were happening," Edwards said. "Every time that we started him, we played good defense out there and he was putting together good at-bats." Gibson was a major catalyst in Saturday's win. With Science Hill trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second, Lewis came up with a two-out, run-scoring single to get the Hilltoppers on the board. Aiden Vermillion followed Lewis up with an RBI single of his own to knot the game at 2. "Once you get things started, it just keeps on going," said Lewis, who went 2-for-3 on the day. "One hit leads to another which leads to another. It's momentum. You've got to get that momentum going, and it just rolls on from there." Gibson certainly felt the boost that came from being back on even ground with the Indians. "It took the pressure off for the whole team," he said. "We could just kind of settle in and get to work." Some of Science Hill's most productive hits of the day didn't come off the barrel of the bat - they came off of shoulders and forearms. The Hilltoppers have a knack for getting hit by pitches, and they were plunked four times on Saturday. "It's a key momentum switch," Lewis said. "When you take hit-by-pitches, especially with two strikes, it flips the entire momentum, and it gets runners on." Science Hill leadoff man Carter McKinney, who earned a spot on the all-tournament team, was hit by pitches twice with the bases loaded, giving him two RBIs on the day. The first one came in the bottom of the fourth to put Science Hill ahead 4-3. The second came in the bottom of the sixth, helping the Hilltoppers extend their lead to 5-3. Both teams finished with nine hits, and D-B coach Ryan Wagner pointed to walks and hit batsmen as a deciding factor after the razor-thin result. "We probably walked a few too many and hit a few too many," he said. "The guys that were out there, I'd put them right back out there again today. Those guys want the ball and they fight." D-B's Andrew Reilly finished 3-for-3 with two doubles and a walk, earning a spot on the all-tournament team. He was joined by teammates Cam Hayworth - who had an RBI single - and Blankenship, who had a single and drove home a run with a sacrifice fly. Science Hill's Cole ReSue earned a spot on the all-tournament team along with West Ridge's Dale Martin and Ty Malak. Caleb Rodrick of Morristown West rounded out the all-tournament team.