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BY DEAN FOX
MURFREESBORO — One fateful inning Wednesday night pushed Oak Ridge to the brink in the Class 4A state baseball tournament.
Clarksville scored all of its runs in the bottom of the fifth, erasing a three-run Oak Ridge lead en route to a 5-4 victory in the first round of the double-elimination bracket.
Oak Ridge plays Blackman at 10 a.m. Thursday. The winner of that game will play again Thursday at 5 p.m. against the loser of Thursday’s 12:30 game between Clarksville and Green Hill.
The biggest blow for Oak Ridge on Wednesday came when Mr. Baseball finalist Korbin Reynolds smacked a three-run double off Oak Ridge starter Mikee Teasley to tie the game. Reynolds is a Vanderbilt signee; Teasley, a junior, has committed to play for Tennessee.
“I wasn’t trying to challenge him outside,” Teasley said. “I was just trying to put the ball away from the plate. He’s going to Vandy, and you know he’s a good athlete, and he just got his hands through it and hit it.”
Two more runs scored later in the inning on an error and a passed ball as Clarksville grabbed a 5-3 advantage.
“It’s never easy to bounce back, but we’ll be all right,” Oak Ridge coach Travis Free said. “We’re not super young. We’ve been here before and we know we have to do over the next 16 hours or so to get ready.”
Oak Ridge made an early push thanks to a solo home run from Peyton Witter in the fourth and an RBI single by Whit Renegar later that inning. Teasley doubled and eventually scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to extend the lead, but the Admirals would not score again until the seventh.
Trailing 5-3 entering the final frame, Oak Ridge got a break when Renegar reached on an error and scored on Parker Free’s single. The Wildcats put the tying run on base, but reliever Brady Smith recorded the final outs to preserve the win and earn the save.
Clarksville starter Austin Nebben struck out 11 over six gritty innings and 120 pitches despite issuing four walks and hitting a batter. He worked out of jams in the first and second innings and held Oak Ridge to three runs — only two earned — on three hits.
Smith allowed two hits in the seventh but limited the damage.
Oak Ridge stranded seven runners and committed one error, while Clarksville played shakier defense with three errors of its own but found the game-changing hit when it needed it.
“It’s a tough way to lose by one in a tournament, but we’re going to bounce back, because that’s what we’re made of,” Teasley said.
OR 000 210 1 – 4 5 1
CLK 000 050 X – 5 4 3
Teasley, Witter (6) and Free; Nebben, Smith (7) and Reynolds. W-Nebben. L-Teasley. S-Smith. HR-Witter (OR).
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