Crockett baseball pulls another stunner, advances to region

JOHNSON CITY — David Crockett baseball coach Brian Miller was slightly concerned late Friday night about his team being somewhat flat for Saturday's losers' bracket final of the District 1-3A baseball tournament. Granted, a region berth was at stake on Saturday against coach Mike Corn's solid Elizabethton team. But the Pioneers had just ended archrival Daniel Boone's season with a mild upset thanks to a dramatic, late-innings rally, and the players were still sky high around midnight. But twelve hours later, Miller's fourth-seeded Pioneers had turned the page. They took the field at Thomas Stadium at high noon and proceeded to shoot down the second-seeded Cyclones while clinching a region berth with a 6-4 victory. "Man, they came in this morning just as loose as could be," Miller said. "I thought, 'Man, we're gonna be okay. They're ready to play.'" Crockett will take on Tennessee High in the championship game on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. A Crockett victory would necessitate another game on Monday for the title. Crockett last won a district title in 1994 when Miller was a senior playing for his father, Sonny. Miller is thrilled to enhance the legacy of his father. "Well, it tickles me to death," Miller said. "I'm proud to be at that school. I grew up there. "And it tickles dad to death. To be 80 years old he's still got some teeth and still got some bite. He still gets fired up, and I love that about him." Playing its fourth game in as many days, Crockett was down to two pitchers on Saturday – Noah Jones and Brayden Page. No problem. Jones allowed four runs in 6 1/3 innings before reaching his 120-pitch limit, and Page recorded the final two outs for the save. "Noah was gonna have to be big, and he battled and competed and never got rattled," Miller said. "If he hadn't had a rough sixth inning when his pitch count got up, I think he would've been able to go all the way. But he went to 120, and I put Brayden in. "He's a senior that's been with us and thrown well, but you never know how kids are going to react when you put 'em in that game in the bottom of the seventh. But he was just as cool and as loose as he could be, and I thought, 'We've got 'em.'" Jones keeps baseball in perspective. "He knows this is just a silly game at the end of the day," Miller said ."He's a great student. I think he made a 34 or a 35 on his ACT. "I ask at the beginning of the year – and I know this is a pie-in-the-sky question, but I said, 'Noah, what if you hit about .650 and go about 11-0 on the mound and Tennessee and LSU offer you a full ride to go be a baseball Division I legend?' And he said, 'I'm going to Tennessee Tech. I'll be an engineer.' And I thought, 'Wow, this kid's got his priorities right.'" A.J. Ford scored on a wild pitch to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Crockett extended the lead to 4-0 in the third. A baseball's hard enough to hit without the pressure of a four-run deficit in an elimination game. But Elizabethton battled back, and put the tying runs on base in the seventh. "Shoot, there ain't no folding in that bunch," Miller said. "They just keep fighting all the way until the end. Of course, that comes from Coach Corn and who he is. He was a hard-nosed player in high school and he's a hard-nosed coach. "But I thought maybe if we put enough pressure on 'em, they might fold up. But heck no, they just kept competing. You have to beat that bunch for seven innings. They had the winning run at the plate." Carson Bradburn, Lukas Easterling, Gabe Story and Andrew Cloyd tallied two hits apiece for Crockett. "They all four are swinging it pretty well," Miller said. "And they're getting pretty confident at the right time. We scored early, and that took some pressure off. "We hit it well today. And we have been hitting it well. And as my father used to tell, 'When you hit it good, son, that covers up a multitude of sins.' And he's right." Elizabethton catcher J.D. Hooks went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, a triple and a walk. "Hooks is a ballplayer," Miller said. "In my opinion, Hooks is their heartbeat. I mean, they've got (Rhett) Slagle, and Slagle is fantastic. "But Hooks makes 'em go. He is rock solid behind the plate and he's rock solid in the box." Miller would be the first to tell you that trying to beat top-seeded Tennessee High two straight games will be a chore. The Vikings beat Crockett, 11-1, on Thursday. But the Pioneers will have pitchers A.J. Ford available Sunday and Gabe Story available Monday. He said Story was too jacked up early in the day the previous time he pitched against the Vikings. "We just need to go out there and be loose and play hard," Miller said. "One of the Boone coaches the other day said, 'Do you all have a plan for Elizabethton?' I said, 'Do we look like a bunch with a plan? … We're just gonna go out here and let it rip, try to throw strikes and catch it.'" Crockett last won the the region in 1986. Miller was 10 years old and around the program every day. Shortstop Jeff Peterson and second baseman Freddie Autry inspired his dreams of being a middle infielder. He liked watching Brad Rambo hit and pitch on a team that included pitcher Teddy Adams, Greg Arnold (outfielder-pitcher) and center fielder Mark Lingerfelt. "The thing I remember most – Coach (Dave) Britton and dad, they were fiery coaches," Miller said, "but their teams always had fun and they always played loose. Now, they would get after you, but I just remember the joy that it brought just watching those boys compete. All of those guys that went through the program were my heroes growing up – and how hard they played and the joy they played with is what I remember. … I just want our guys to play hard and have fun."