Greenfield claims rights to 14A title for another year

Posted: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 12:00 pm

By MIKE HUTCHENS
Press Sports
Greenfield may not actually “own” the District 14A Baseball Tournament championship trophy; however, the hardware has become part of the school’s decor in recent years.
The Yellowjackets won their fourth consecutive 14A title Thursday with a 9-1 thumping of Trenton in the tourney championship round at Union City’s Elam Stadium.
The win not only secured another in a growing list of district championships for the ‘Jackets, but was also their 12th straight 14A tournament victory and 16th in the past 17 games during the aforementioned run of first-place finishes.
“I think back to that first year, and I remember how we almost got put out of the tournament immediately and now, four years later, we’ve won four in a row,” Greenfield head coach Willie Trevathan smiled said after his team had beaten Peabody for the second time in this year’s tournament and was the lone team in the field to not lose a game.
“It’s been an unbelievable run and it says a lot about our kids. They have some talent but, most of all, they’re good kids. They have good parents, they’ve had good coaching from an early age from a lot of different people, but more than anything, they have integrity. I’m so proud to be associated with them and to be their coach and assistant principal.”
Greenfield scored four times in the first and never looked back Thursday in beating Peabody, which had ousted Union City in the loser’s bracket finals on Wednesday and ended the Tornadoes’ streak of consecutive sectional berths.
The ’Jackets got great production from the bottom part of their lineup with Tanner Smithson, Chris Reddic and Adam Bethel each collecting two hits and RBIs.
“The guys at the lower end of the batting order really came up big today,” the Greenfield skipper acknowledged. “That’s the way this team is and has been — somebody different steps up when somebody else didn’t. It’s truly the team concept.”
No. 2 hitter Tony Robinson went 3-for-4 with a run scored and a ribbie, tournament most valuable player Graham Perkins drove in two run and Heath Crouse scored twice for the ‘Jackets, who also got a strong pitching performance from Zac Grooms.
Grooms went the distance for the fourth time this season, improving to 7-0. He scattered five hits, did not walk a batter and struck out four.
The lone Peabody run scored vs. Grooms was unearned.
“He was just outstanding,” Trevathan said of his winning hurler. “He got ahead early in the count, he spot his pitches well and he made some really good pitches in the sixth when an error got him in a little trouble.
“He wanted the ball beforehand.”
Greenfield out-hit Trenton 12-5, and Peabody hurt itself with four errors that led to four unearned runs.
The ’Jackets had at least one hit in five of their six at-bats and put away the Tide by scoring twice in the fifth and three times in the sixth.
Reddic’s misjudged fly ball to right field in the second got G’field on the board and Smithson and Robinson then followed with RBI hits to make it 4-0.
Trenton got its only run in the sixth with the aid of an error, but Grooms retired three straight batters after the Tide had scored and had two runners on with no outs.
Heath and Hunter Crouse, along with Robinson, Perkins and Peyton Page were selected to the all-district team for the victors. Published in The WCP 5.15.12