Chattanooga State beats Darton

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Chattanooga State opened the NJCAA East Central District Baseball Tournament Thursday afternoon with a 7-3 victory over 14th-ranked Darton State at Senators Field on the Walters State Community College campus.

The Tigers rode the arm of sophomore pitcher Austin Hutchison and solid performances at the plate from both Michael Halley and Nate Schmal to move within a pair of wins of their first JUCO World Series appearance since 2010.

With the win, the Tigers (31-11) advance in the tournament to the winner’s bracket finals at 3 p.m. on Friday against fourth-ranked and host Walters State, who defeated South Georgia State 11-1 in six innings on Thursday.

The loss puts the Cavaliers (40-18) into an elimination game on Friday at 11 a.m. against South Georgia.

After three scoreless innings, the Tigers opened the scoring in the top half of the fourth. Michael Goss ripped a one-out single and moved to second on a two-out base knock from Chaz Vesser. Schmal followed by grounding a single up the middle to drive in Goss for a 1-0 Chattanooga State lead.

Darton knotted the score in the bottom of the fourth frame. Luis Salas opened the inning with a single before John Cable dropped a single into left field that moved Salas to third. Max Thomas then grounded to first for an out, and the Tigers caught Cable in a run down between first and second allowing Salas to score.

After Tigers starting pitcher Hutchison worked a perfect bottom of the fifth, his teammates gave him the lead for the first time in the top half of the sixth. Halley led off the inning with a double down the right field line before moving up 90 feet on a ground ball. Joseph Underwood followed with an RBI single to put Chattanooga State up 2-1.

Hutchison retired the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth before running into trouble. Salas singled and scored on a two-bagger by Tyler Morris. John Cable then walked and Max Thomas was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Hutchison got Tavin Thompson to pop out to third to end the threat with the score tied at 2.

Chattanooga State put together a rally in the seventh to reclaim the lead and chased Darton starting pitcher Jeremy Beasley after three base hits in a row with two coming on bunts. Reliever Rabon Martin then gave up a two-run single to Halley on his first pitch to put the Tigers up a pair of runs. Schmal added another big hit later in the frame with a two-run base hit of his own to make it 6-2.

Chattanooga State added to the lead in the eighth inning, as Noah Karst led off with a walked and moved up two bases on ground balls before scoring on an RBI single by Halley to extend the lead to 7-2.

Hutchison’s day ended after seven innings after allowing just a pair of earned runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and three walks while hurling 134 pitches. Jacob Mason relived Hutchison and allowed a leadoff homer by Salas, his fourth of the season, but he got out of the frame with no further damage done to send the Tigers into the eighth inning with a 7-3 lead.

Mason worked a perfect ninth frame to finish off the game and record his first save of the year.

Halley led the Tigers with four hits and three RBIs, while Scmal had three hits and three runs batted in. Andy Clay and Goss both added two hits in the win.

Salas led the Cavaliers with four hits in the contest. Both Salas and Morris drove in a run in the loss.

Hutchison (9-3) picked up the win over Beasley (7-4) in the contest. Beasley allowed five earned runs on 11 hits in six-plus innings in the loss.