The Coalfield Yellow Jackets are one win away from their first state baseball title in 27 years. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — It’s starting to feel like ‘98, eh Coalfield?
The Coalfield Baseball team, for the first time since winning it all 27 years ago, will play for a state championship at 11 a.m. Saturday Central time in Murfreesboro.
Middle Tennessee Christian School will serve as the host field for the Class 1A Championship, but Coaldield (32-5) will take on three-time defending state champion Eagleville (32-6) in the season finale.
Coalfield got there via their 8-4 win Friday over McKenzie, which had to beat the Yellow Jackets twice on Friday to prevent them from reaching the championship.
The Yellow Jackets never allowed the if-necessary game to take place, eliminating McKenzie in the 2 p.m. meeting.
Coalfield beat McKenzie 10-0 on Thursday, and its bats stayed hot Friday.
Jackson Treece proved to be the ringleader, smacking a bases-clearing triple to move a 2-1 Coalfield lead to 5-1 in the second inning.
“I was so confident. I was looking for a fastball right down the middle,” he said. “I think he thought he could blow it by me.”
He added a two-run single in the sixth to make the Yellow Jackets’ lead 8-2.
Jackson Treece finished 3 for 4 with five RBIs.
“It’s huge,” Treece said of the win Friday. “We haven’t been to this spot since 1998. My dad was the coach of that team.”
Coalfield started eighth-grader Eli Coleman, and he didn’t let the pressure overwhelm.
He worked 6.1 innings and allowed just three earned runs.
“He did his job,” Treece said. “He kept them to under 4-5 runs, and that’s all we told him he needed to do.”
Coalfield brought a big crowd Friday.
It’ll likely be larger Saturday.
“It’s awesome,” Treece said. “All these people down here believe in us.”