By Matt Byrd
Tennessee Director of Scouting

The final game of the day on Friday featured two Knoxville area teams to battle it out for the Class AAA State Championship as Farragut took on rival Hardin Valley Academy. In an intense atmosphere, Vanderbilt signee Patrick Raby and Tennessee signee Will Neely squared off, and both pitchers worked eight strong innings before HVA blew things open in the ninth for a 10-2 victory and first ever Class AAA title.

Farragut struck first in the bottom of the third when Chandler Chambers doubled to left field to score Justen Freeman (who had singled) for a 1-0 lead.

HVA quickly tied the game in the fourth when Matt Martin followed up singles by Vinny Gambuzza and Tyler Thompson with a single of his own to score Gambuzza and knot the game at 1-1.

Farragut reclaimed the lead in the fifth when Chambers struck again with a two-out triple to right that drove in Freeman for a 2-1 lead.

HVA answered in the sixth when Ian Pung scored on a single to right by Zach Sears to tie things back up at 2-2.

The score remained that way through eight innings, but Raby, having thrown on Tuesday, was removed from the game, and HVA took advantage. Sears drew a lead off walk, and Tyler Thompson followed with a single to left to put runners on first and second. Martin smoked an RBI double to left to score Sears for a 3-2 lead. After Hunt was intentionally walked, Dom Leo reached on an error to make it 4-2. Dylan Harris followed with the big blow of the game, a bases clearing, three-run triple to blow the game open and give HVA a 7-2 lead. An error, a Sears single, and a Thompson sacrifice fly plated three more HVA runs to make it a 10-2 game.

Greg Valentine came on in relief of Neely and pitched a scoreless bottom of the 9^th as HVA claimed it’s first Class AAA state title with a 10-2 victory over Farragut.

HVA

Thompson 3-for-4, RBI
Martin 3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI
Sears 2-for-3, RBI
Gambuzza 2-for-4
Harris 3B, 3 RBI
WP – Neely 8 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 4 K

Farragut

Chambers 2-for-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI
Morgan 2-for-4
Raby 8 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 10 K