Knights Advance to GSA Championship Game in Season Opening Tourney

The 2015 Marietta Knights show off their hardware after making it to the championship game of the GSA tournament.

In their first tournament of the year, the Marietta Knights often looked like they were in mid season form as they rode great pitching, timely hitting and big league defense to 2 big wins and a 2nd place finish in the GSA Championship at Legion Field in Austell, Georgia.

 

Marietta would be down two players for the their first two games of the tourney while Gil and George were busy with the Marietta HS JV squad pounding Sprayberry. Coach Rob convinced former players Will "the Thrill" Nelson and "the King" Presley Field to put back on the Columbia blue and fill in. Fortunately, Will's Blessed Trinity lacrosse team and Presley's Hillgrove Hawks 8th grade baseball team were off for the day. The team was thrilled to have these old friends back in the dugout and they were a huge help in the tourney.

 

The Knights opened as the visiting team against the South Paulding Spartans and their hot bats defied

Jack Vargo was a coach's dream at lead off, leading off 3
different innings with singles, stolen bases and runs scored. 

the 30 degree weather. Jack Vargo got them started by leading off the season with a line drive single into RCF. He stole 2B and then advanced to 3B on a passed ball. After Jackson Tysinger walked and Hunter Williamson was hit by a pitch, Jack took home on a passed ball to give Marietta a 1 run lead. Austin Hansell picked up an RBI with a 2 strike ground out to 2B to score Jackson. Nathan Brooks was then hit by a pitch. With 2 outs, Garrett Wells drove a single into LCF that scored Hunter and Nathan and the Knights led 4-0 after a half inning.
After a walk and an error allowed the Spartans' lead off hitter to score, Big Game Hunter settled down to throw an absolute gem. Hunter fielded a bunt from the mound and threw to 1B for one out and coaxed two weak grounders to 1B that Presley handled unassisted to maintain the 4-1 lead after 1. Jack led off the 2nd with another big rip into RCF and another stolen base. Jackson singled in Jack and Hunter walked and stole 2B allowing Austin to pick up another 2 strike RBI with a grounder to short to score Jackson. Hunter came home when Nathan Brooks reached on a hot shot to SS. Alex Beaullieu singled and stole 2B and 3B and scored on a WP to give the Knights a commanding 7-1 lead. After 2 innings, the Knights 1, 2 and 3 hitters had each scored twice.



Big Game Hunter threw a CG, 1 hitter with 5 K's in win over
South Paulding. He also batted .500 with 2 RBI's in the tourney. 

Hunter and the Knights defense never let the Spartans back in the game. Hunter used a great fastball and filthy curve for a complete game 1 hitter with 5 strikeouts. Only 2 balls left the infield, a lazy flyball that Alex caught in CF and the Spartans' only hit which was a grounder that snuck between SS and 3B. Meanwhile, the Knights' defense was fantastic. Austin Hansell anchored that D with 3 big assists from 3B. The Knights' lone error was a throwing error in the 1st.

Jackson closed out the Knights' scoring in the final inning with a huge RBI double to score Jack. In the bottom of the inning Hunter struck out the final 2 batters to end the convincing 9-1 opening day win.



With a thin bullpen, Coach Tysinger
was ready to take the mound.  

The Knights were only able to enjoy the win for a few minutes before they had to face a very strong Eastside Heat team. The AAA Heat's home is just a few miles from the Knights' and the boys had a lot of great friends in the opposing dugout including former Knights Cal Hughes and Mason Doyle. Coach Rob loved seeing his old players and their families right up until Mason started scorching the base paths and Cal made a great block and tag on a play at the plate. He was proud of his guys but wished they were doing it to someone else. And as good as the Knights' defense was in game 1, it was that bad in the first inning of game 2. It should have opened with a 3 up/ 3 down inning. But after 3 errors in the first 4 at bats, the Heat led 3-0 with only 1 out. The errors piled up until the Heat held an 11-0 lead. Jack came on and threw 2 solid innings with 2 strikeouts as the Knights played almost even for the rest of the way in the 14-2 loss. Jackson and Hunter each delivered an RBI single for the Knights 2 runs.

After a long late lunch break, the Knights found out they had earned the #2 seed and would have a rematch with the South Paulding Spartans in the Semi finals. Even better, Gil and George were back for the rest of the day.

The home Knights got off to a great start as Austin Hansell tied the all time baseball record for fewest pitches in an inning with 3. Jack caught a line drive at 2B, Hunter threw the next batter out from 3B and Austin snagged a line drive at the mound on the third pitch and the inning was over. Once again, Jack led off with a single and stole 2B. Hunter delivered another RBI single for a 1-0 lead after 1. The Spartans used small ball to scratch across a run each in the 2nd and 3rd to take a 2-1 lead. Trailing by a run, Hunter was hit by a fastball in the arm, stole 2nd and advanced to 3rd after tagging on Austin's deep fly ball to RF. With 2 outs, the Blue Devils connection stepped in with back to back drives to retake the lead. Gil hit a monstrous double to deep CF to score Hunter and he came home on George's line drive single to RCF.

Nathan Brooks came up big behind the plate catching a ton
of innings throughout the evening.

Austin delivered a 3up/3 down 4th on just 8 pitches. The Spartans tied things up at 3 in the 5th on a single and a triple. The throw home attempting to get the lead runner went wild and the batter broke for the plate to try to give the Spartans the lead. Catcher Nathan Brooks scooped the ball at the fence and tossed to Austin who tagged the runner to preserve the tie score. With runners on 2B and 3B and 1 out, Austin struck out South Paulding's clean up hitter and got a pop out to Jackson at SS to end the threat.

With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 5th, Jackson and Hunter led off with back to back singles. With fans and players from other teams lining the fence watching the tight game, Austin ripped a single to CF that scored 2. Gil followed up with his second RBI double of the day and came home on Garrett's RBI grounder to short. The Knights had opened it up and led 7-3.

After 2 walks and an error, the Spartans closed the gap to 7-5 and had a runner on 2B. Jackson came on to try to save it for the Knights and got a huge strike out. The Spartans lead off hitter then came up and hit a routine grounder to 2B. Hunter fielded it and threw to Gil at 1B for out number 2. In the Defensive Play of the Game, after making the put out at 1B Gil picked up the runner breaking for 3B and threw a dart to Austin who put down the tag on the sliding runner. The ump added to the drama with a big emphatic out call to end the game. The Knights were headed for their 4th game of the day and a chance to play for the championship.

Jackson Tysinger had a huge tournament hitting.400
with 3 RBI's, 3 Runs and 3 Stolen Bases and a Save.

The Championship Game was a rematch with the Eastside Heat. The Heat is a very good, well coached team that hits hard and makes very few mistakes. The Knights hung with them better in the rematch but the Heat were once again too strong and they pulled away for an 11-1 win. Although there were very few offensive highlights, the Knights were better defensively. Their 2 double plays were the Co-Defensive Plays of the game. With the Heat rallying in the 1st, Hunter caught a looping line drive behind 2B and tagged the bag to double off the base runner and end the inning. After a single in the 3rd, Alex fielded a grounder at SS, flipped to Jack at 2B for 1 and he threw to Gil at first to complete the 6-4-3 double play.

Although they were disappointed to come up a game short, the Marietta Knights were rightfully excited about the way they played on opening weekend. The Knights picked up 2 huge wins over very a good team. They had a lot of big hits, great defense and awesome pitching. There is certainly plenty to work on, but for their opening tournament, the Knights should be proud of a great performance.