Bearden battles hard, but Diamond Admirals rally, win 4-1
Bryce Burkey delivered in the clutch when his team needed him most.
Burkey, Farragut High School’s senior right fielder, came up with a pair of late singles that drove in three runs to help the Admirals overcome an early deficit and capture a 4-1 victory over rival Bearden Monday night, April 19, in a District 4-AAA showdown at John Heatherly Field/The Ballpark at Farragut.
“He’s just having a great year,” FHS head coach Matt Buckner said of Burkey.
“They played well, and both pitchers really threw well, but we had some senior leaders step up for us late in the game. We had Burkey, Parker Evans (RBI single) and Tanner Kim step up for us,” he added.
Brennon Seigler added a triple for the Ads, 23-2 overall and 9-1 in 4-AAA after the win.
The Bulldogs (13-9, 3-7) scored first when freshman catcher and University of Tennessee commitment Brooks Wright clubbed a solo homer.
Farragut junior starting pitcher Jaxson Pease then settled down to retire 17 of the last 19 Bearden hitters he faced.
Pease, who gave up just four hits, one run and one walk in a complete game effort, finished with nine strikeouts. He sat down 13 consecutive batters before Will Nelms picked up a single with one out in the top of the sixth. “My fastball was working for me and my curveball was working well for me late,” Pease said.
For the Bulldogs, “Both of our pitchers were the stories of the day,” BHS head coach John Rice said, as Bearden starter Drew Sliwinski went 5.2 innings, surrendering four runs, five hits and five walks. But only one FHS run was earned.
“I appreciated our kids for their effort. We’re just a workman-like team and this was a good game,” the coach added, as both Admirals scoring innings (fifth and sixth) “started off with an error.”
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the second frame, Farragut missed a chance to pull even as freshman center fielder Brennon Seigler, another UT commitment came up with a one-out triple but was stranded when Hunter Merrick grounded out and Sliwinski caught Lukas Buckner swinging to get out of the inning.
The Ads broke through in the fifth when Burkey delivered a two-run single to give Farragut a 2-1 lead.
The Admirals added two more runs in the sixth as Evans and Burkey had RBI singles.
