Tunstall baseball suffers another heartbreaker

DRY FORK — Tunstall players sat stunned in the dugout as for the second year in a row, the 23rd win was the most elusive.

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The Region IV champions’ bats went cold after the first inning as Chris Walker allowed three hits in six innings of relief and Rustburg used one run at a time in coming back to defeat the home-standing Trojans 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Group AA state tournament Tuesday.

Rustburg (20-6) right fielder Chris Anderson scored on a bunt from second base in the top of the seventh that proved to be the game-winning run. Grayson Gibson laid down a one-out bunt that pitcher Joe Mantiply fielded cleanly and threw out Gibson at first. By the time first baseman Brett Hylton had a chance to look up and fire home, Anderson was already preparing to slide across the plate.

The loss comes shockingly for Tunstall (22-2) as the Trojans’ bats erupted for four runs and five hits in the first inning off Rustburg starter Brandon West, who was pulled prior to the second inning.

“When you get four in the first, you would hope that you could keep pecking along and get one here and one there, but we were not able to string any hits together,” Tunstall coach Barry Shelton said. “Basically, you have to give him a lot of credit because he came in and shut us down.”

That “him” Shelton referred to was Walker, a first-team member of the Seminole District. Put in the precarious position of shutting down the high-powered Trojans and allowing the Red Devils to claw back, Walker shined. The right hander kept the Tunstall bats off balance with an array of off-speed pitches and the use of his defense behind him.

While Walker was keeping things in check on the mound, the Red Devils got an RBI from Anderson in both the third and fifth innings to bring the deficit to one run. The offense began wearing down Mantiply systematically by rattling off several hits and working the count to its fullest. The Virginia Tech signee allowed two earned runs on 11 hits while fanning 10 Red Devils.

“We knew he was going to be hard and this team’s good — that’s why they’re in states,” Anderson said of Mantiply and the Trojans. “We came in here, he was 33-1 and we just made it 33-2. We knew it was going to be a battle. We had a hard time against left handers all season and we came out and had our ‘A’ game.”

Tunstall’s early offensive production was similar to the slugfest from Saturday’s 15-8 Region IV championship game victory over Richlands. Hylton blasted a two-run single to right center and Hunter Hedrick and Wesley Marshall followed with back-to-back doubles, the latter one bringing home Hylton and Hedrick for a 4-1 Tunstall lead.

“Hits weren’t going in the hole and it seemed like it changed momentum when they put that kid in,” Hylton said about Walker coming in and shutting the Trojans down. “I don’t know why we just kind of fell off when that kid came in there. We just couldn’t get anything started after he came in. Not sure what the problem was.”

Matt Clear had two of the three hits off Walker and Shawn Clowers added a double down the right field line to start off the bottom of the seventh. However, Clowers was stranded 90 feet away on third.

“It was definitely a change of momentum with the new pitcher. I mean, I still feel like we should have hit him. He didn’t have stuff that was too hard to hit,” Tunstall shortstop Cody Holder said after going 1-for-4 at the plate with a run scored and a stolen base. “They were definitely a team that was playing for one run at a time and they were playing for a run here or there. I guess it paid off getting one run every inning.”

After Anderson scored what turned out to be the go-ahead run, Ross Garner’s single to left plated Kerry Coffer for the final run for the Region III runner-up.
Sam Calohan finished 3-for-5 with two runs and two stolen bases. Walker added two RBIs on ground outs, the last one in the sixth that plated Calohan to tie the game at 4-4.

“The team’s played great behind me all year, so that helped out. I just mixed up my speeds and they really couldn’t sit on one pitch,” Walker said. “I’m pretty sure that as soon as we tied it up, we were going to win the game because we were not going to let them beat us.”

Rustburg advances to play Alleghany, a 4-3 winner over Richlands on Friday at 1 p.m. at Calfee Park in Pulaski.

“These guys haven’t quit all year. That’s one thing I give them. Regardless of what happens today win or lose, we do not quit and we didn’t quit,” Rustburg coach Barry Godsey said. “I told them in the third or fourth inning, this game has a lot of feel as our Seminole District tournament championship game did where we stayed down three or four runs and then we rallied late.”