TEAMS TO BE RECOGNIZED

INDUCTION CEREMONIES FOR THE FARRAGUT HIGH SPORTS HALL OF FAME ARE 7 P.M. FEB 1, 2014 IN THE COMMONS AREA.

BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL PLAYERS FROM FARRAGUT'S TWO CLASS AAA 1982 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS WILL BE RECOGNIZED AT 6 P.M. BEFORE THE SECOND CLASS OF INDUCTEES ARE ANNOUNCED.

THE SOFTBALL TEAM WON ITS TITLE WITH AN OPENING DAY SWEEP, GIVING FARRAGUT ITS FIRST TSSAA STATE CHAMPION IN ANY SPORT.

THE BASEBALL TEAM HAD TO WAIT A DAY, PLAYING A THIRD GAME, WINNING ITS TITLE MAY 26, 1982, WHICH AT THE TIME ALLOWED FARRAGUT TO BE THE FIRST TEAM TO EVER WIN SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE SAME YEAR.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Game Three

JOURNAL SPORTS Thursday, May 27, 1982


Farragut wears state 
baseball crown with win


Admirals follow Heatherly’s plan


Winning the Class AAA state baseball championship was just a matter of following the direction set out by Farragut Coach John Heatherly at the start of the season.
"Coach told us if we played together as a team, we would win," said Mike Jordan, who came on in relief to nail down the Admirals’ 4-3 victory over Memphis Christian Brothers in the championship at UT.
"We’ve worked hard all year. We’ve played together. We followed Coach Heatherly’s plan. He was right."
Farragut’s team play was magnified in the "big one" without star pitcher Jeff Glover, who hurled Farragut to 15 wins during the season and was a workhorse on the mound throughout tournament play. With Glover, who pitched his allotted 10 innings in Tuesday’s doubleheader, watching from the sidelines, Admiral teammates more than picked up the slack.
Heatherly said Farragut’s game plan in the finale was. "to get ahead early, take away their bunting game and make sure outs. For the most part, we executed well.’
Herky Payne, Farragut assistant coach, said the Admirals’ title game brought back to mind Tennessee’s 3-2 loss to Oklahoma in the finals of the 1951 College World Series. "I was thinking today it’s so much sweeter to win it all than being the runnerup," said Payne, who was a second baseman on the ‘51 UT team. "This championship is great for Knoxville high school baseball.
Tom Schumpert, who guided Central to an 8-3 win over Tullahoma in the 1973 state finals, was among those in attendance. Heatherly was a catcher on Schumpert’s first baseball team at Central in 1967.



Admirals hold on for 4-3 win


By STEVE WILLIAMSJournal Sports Writer

Farragut High’s determined Admirals jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead and held off Memphis Christian Brothers’ late charge to capture the TSSAA Class AAA, 4-3, at UT’s Lower Hudson Field Wednesday.
The baseball crown was the second state title for Farragut in 24 hours. The Lady Admirals gave the school its first-ever state championship when they swept past Gallatin in the finals Tuesday.
Farragut Coach John Heatherly called his team "a bunch of battlers" just minutes after the title conquest. "This group would go and battle the New York Yankees and make it close."
"Right now I’m sort of in a daze," Heatherly added. "Winning the state title hasn’t hit me yet. But I’m sure it will flatten me later on when I realize what we have accomplished."
In giving the KIL its first state championship since Central took the title in 1973, the Admirals posted a glittering 26-5 record, coming back to deal defeats to every team that had beaten them: Jefferson County, Karns, Halls, Bearden and CBHS.
The Purple Wave, coming into the best-of-three championship series undefeated, bowed out with a 26-2 record.
Pat Dorwin led off the Admirals’ first with a single and Bobby Gaylor later drove him in. A clutch, two-out, two-run single by Greg Schwartz off CBHS starter Denver Dahlke staked Farragut to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. An error by CBHS third baseman Jay Rogers aided the Admirals’ early uprising.
Schwartz, Farragut’s starting pitcher, held the Memphians hitless for the first 3 1/3 innings but got himself in troubling by giving up six bases on balls, including two in the fourth. With runners on first and second and one out, Heatherly brought in senior relief specialist Mike Jordan to put out the fire.
Jordan, with 14 saves on the season, struck out Chris Pretti but was touched for singles by Mike Haag and Rogers as the Purple Wave cut the Farragut lead to 3-1.
The Admirals expanded their lead back to three runs in the fifth. David Mowery led off with a single. Two outs later, designated hitter Jeff Sexton’s shot to left was misjudged by left fielder Scott Elliott and dropped for a double, scoring Randy Huffaker, who had reached on a sacrifice.
Despite its 4-1 lead, Farragut nearly fell apart in the fifth. CBHS’s first four batters got aboard, two reaching on singles and two on errors in the Admiral infield. Mike Blackburn’s two-run single to right cut the gap to 4-3.
With runners on first and third and only one out, CBHS was looking for more., but Blackburn, trying to score on a suicide squeeze play, was tagged out when the CBHS batter failed to bunt the ball. It very well could have been the play of the game.
"After what we had seen in Tuesday’s games, we figured they would be bunting," Heatherly said. "Jordan threw high and hard when he caught the runner breaking for home out of the corner of his eye. Their batter backed out and we got the easy out."
"That play was the difference in the game," said Christian Brothers Coach Robert Crone. "When you get this far, you have to execute to win. You can’t make mistakes and expect to beat a team of Farragut’s caliber."
Rogers, CBHS’ ace pitcher, came on to blank the Admirals over the final two innings, but Jordan preserved Farragut’s one-run lead, twice stopping the Purple Wave with a runner in scoring position.
In the CBHS sixth, Rogers stroked a one-out single to left. Pinch-runner Vinnie Strong moved to second on Bubba Ryan’s sacrifice bunt. But Jordan got leadoff hitter Mike Bennett to ground to third to end the inning.
Jordan walked Scott Elliott to open the bottom of the seventh. Third baseman Craig Schnupp went into foul territory to catch Blackburn’s pop-up for the first out. Elliott stole second and went to third on Tim Moran’s groundout. With the potential tying run on third, Jordan got Mike Hammet to fly out to right to end the game.
"It was nerve wracking out there," winning pitcher Jordan admitted during the Admirals’ post-game celebration. "But winning this state title is the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life."

No comments:

Post a Comment