High School Baseball: Tate shakes off rough start, beats No. 1 South Walton at Wahoos Stadium
Playing under the lights inside of a minor league ballpark means that much more when the matchup features two of the best high school programs in the state.
Tate and South Walton clashed on Thursday to conclude the first night of a two-day, four-game, six-team event at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
At times, the stage appeared to be too bright for both teams. From multiple errors in the field, several outs on the bases and a slew of wild pitches, blunders were a continued theme throughout the evening. However, despite a rough start, the Aggies managed to rebound.
Tate charged back from an early deficit to come away with an 8-3 against the Seahawks, who entered the night with a 10-0 record and were the top-ranked team in Class 4A according to MaxPreps.
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The Aggies, the home team on the scoreboard, allowed three runs in the top of the second inning. They punched back with a four-run third before tacking on runs in fourth and fifth. They improved to 10-2 this season.
South Walton had only relinquished five runs in their previous 10 games.
"I think it's special, I think this team is special. ... I think it just shows the fight this team has because we were down 3-0 early and we fought back and put zeros up on the board the rest of the game," Tate senior infielder Drew Reaves said.
The Aggies brought eight batters to the plate in the go-ahead third frame.
The rally began with a leadoff walk from No. 9 hitter Ketch King and was capped by an RBI groundout from Jay Davis. Reaves (single) and Cliff Quiggins (double) each produced base hits in a frame where South Walton harmed its cause with an error, a wild pitch and a balk.
On the mound, Tate starter Rilee Lowery labored through the second inning, giving up four walks and a hit while hitting a batter. The senior bounced back when he faced just four batters in the third.
After benefitting from a 5-3-6 double play, Lowery closed his outing by inducing a Coleman Berthwick groundout to end the fourth. Junior reliever Gabe Patterson was dominant the rest of the way, tossing three scoreless innings.
For Tate head coach Karl Jernigan, Thursday night was a reversal of how his team performed a week ago in the Aggie Classic. The Aggies went 1-2 in their home tournament, dropping a pair of tight games to Oklahoma schools Union and Broken Arrow.
Avoiding a three-game skid with a win Tuesday at Fort Walton Beach, Tate showed it could play through some troubles in its latest effort.
"We thought we played pretty good in the Aggie Classic, but towards the end, we made some mistakes. Our approaches at the plate, we got ourselves out," he said. "We challenged the guys to regroup and start over. It was a very good test for us because (South Walton) is a really good baseball team. They got some extremely good arms and they attack at the plate. It was a battle tonight."
Here are three takeaways from Thursday night.
Cool under pressure
On a night where play wasn’t the cleanest, Patterson was easily the sharpest.
The junior made a statement as soon as he took the bump in the fifth, fanning the first two batters he faced before closing out the only 1-2-3 inning of the evening. Finishing with five strikeouts, Patterson faced just one Seahawk past the minimum through the final three frames, giving up just one hit and hitting one batter.
“I was just locating my fastball and locating my cutter on the outside part of the plate,” said Patterson, who admits he doesn’t know how hard he throws. “I’ve never been clocked, but I guess it doesn’t matter if they can’t hit it.”
Thursday’s strong performance comes nearly a year after the junior’s varsity debut. Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of his first appearance. That came in a 12-4 Aggies victory over Navarre. The location, of course, was Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“I’m glad I’ve improved a lot since the first time I pitched on varsity. I’m just glad I did good,” Patterson said.
Learning how to pitch
While Patterson was electric from the get go, Lowery needed time to get into rhythm.
He was afforded that time thanks to a 4-6-3 double play which ended a second inning that could’ve been much worse. From there, the senior showed better command of his pitches. Following five walks through his first two innings of work, Lowery gave up just two free passes in his last two frames.
“His big thing is whenever his mechanics are off a little bit, that’s when his release point gets off. He was able to focus back on what we work on” Jernigan said. “Once he could find that release point, he was able to locate on both sides of the plate. … He probably didn’t have his best stuff, but you got to learn how to pitch. And I thought he pitched tonight.”
Anxious start, better finish
Tate committed an error in each of the first two innings, but after the shakey second, the team limited its mistakes, aside from a runner caught trying to steal home in the fourth.
Meanwhile, South Walton either committed an error or threw a wild pitch in the last four innings.
It was clear that while one team eventually got comfortable in the surroundings, the other team went in the opposite direction.
“We’re used to playing on a high school field with not even a portion of this amount of seats,” Jernigan said. “I think both teams were a little anxious, but both teams learned from this opportunity. … Hopefully it makes them better and it makes us better as well.”
Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (850) 503-3828, on Twitter @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Baseball: Tate flips script, beats No. 1 South Walton at Blue Wahoos Stadium
