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By Matt Byrd
Tennessee Director of Scouting

Grace Christian and Summertown kicked off a day full of State Championship Games as the two teams squared off in the Class A title game at Middle Tennessee State University yesterday. Grace Christian held on for a thrilling 8-6 win, and in the process claimed its first Class A state baseball championship in the school’s history.

Grace jumped on Summertown early when Tyler Fee hit a one-out double to left field and Chandler Adkins and Micah Wheeler followed with singles. A Summertown error would plate both Adkins and Wheeler to give Grace a 3-0 lead heading to the bottom of the first.

Summertown would answer immediately off Grace starter Justin Shaw. Bryce Giles led off the game with an infield single, and Luke Scott followed with a bunt single to put two runners base. Konner Ambrose promptly drove both runners home with a double to center field to cut the lead to 3-2. Timmy Beard followed with a single to right to drive in Ambrose and knot things at 3-3. Drew Bailey and Giles’ RBI singles gave Summertown a 5-3 lead after one inning of play.

Grace struck again in the second off Summertown reliever Timmy Beard as Luke Shepherd’s single scored Shaw and Fee to tie the game up at 5-5.

The score remained that way until the fifth when Grace struck to take the lead. Noah Gent’s RBI double scored Ross Ledford, and Hunter Ross followed with a single to score Gent for a two run lead. Fee struck again with another double to score Ross to stretch the Grace lead to 8-5.

Summertown got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the fifth as Jacob Curtis was hit by a pitch and Kendall Franks’ triple to left field cut the Grace lead to 8-6.

After a scoreless sixth, Grace went down in order in the seventh, but Summertown would not go down without a fight as they loaded the bases with two outs to bring Drew Bailey to the plate. Tanner Fee induced Bailey to ground out to second base to end the threat and give Grace the Class A State Title.

Grace

Fee 2-for-3, 2 doubles, RBI
Adkins 2-for-4
Gent 2-for-4, 2B, RBI
WP – Wheeler, 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 K

Summertown

Giles 2-for-4
Ambrose 2B, 2 RBI
Franks 2-for-4, 3B, RBI
Bailey 2 RBI