'It's insane': Watertown baseball wins first TSSAA team state championship in any sport
MURFREESBORO – Steven Whitlock was exhausted.
The Watertown senior was hot. He was dizzy at one point in the game.
But he was not coming out of the TSSAA Class 2A baseball state championship game — not with the program's first title on the line.
Whitlock started on the mound before going behind the plate and helped Watertown beat tournament favorite Pigeon Forge 10-3 at Blackman High on Saturday to cap an undefeated state tourney a year after being swept in two straight games.
The TSSAA championship is the first team title in any sport for the Wilson County school.
"I'm absolutely dead tired," said Whitlock, nibbling on some crackers after the game. "Dehydrated. Hot. All of the above. It was the last game of my high school career. I left it all out there.
"We've done this all year. Pitched and caught. Caught and pitched. I expected nothing less."
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Whitlock was at the bottom of the Purple Tigers' dogpile celebration before a more subdued trophy celebration.
"I think we were in shock," said Watertown sophomore Charlie Mitchell, who relieved Whitlock in the fourth inning and picked up the win. "This is the first time this has ever happened. It's insane."
Whitlock pitched the first 3⅓ innings pitched before Mitchell relieved him and Whitlock put on his catching gear. Whitlock was charged with all three runs — two of them earned. He struck out eight. He was also 2-for-4 at the plate.
"He has guts," Watertown third-year coach Mark Purvis said. "He's done that for the past three weeks. He's beat up. He's tired."
The state title is the first for Purvis, who has coached for 20 years, including a long stint at Mt. Juliet where his 2009 Class AAA team was state runner-up.
The Purple Tigers (29-9) built a 6-1 lead against Pigeon Forge starter Riley Franklin, the TBCA Class 2A Mr. Baseball recipient. Franklin went five innings, striking out seven and walking six. He gave up seven runs, six earned.
The Tigers finished 40-4.
"It's tough — two years in a row to lose the state championship game," Pigeon Forge coach Mike Guinn said. "But this one, that team came out and thoroughly won that ball game.
"They were the tougher team (Saturday). The season was a great season. I'm proud of my boys. But unfortunately I don't think we played our best ball in the state tournament for whatever reason."
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Watertown baseball wins first TSSAA state championship in any sport
