The Cascade Champions season came to an unexpected end late on Sunday night after a 15-7 loss to Cannon County in the District 9-AA Tournament and finishing 1-2 in the postseason. 

After catching fire in the postseason a year ago – going 7-0 to win both the district and region tournament titles before losing to Cannon County in the sub-state round – the Champions were foiled for the second night in a row by the visiting Cannon County Lions.

GAME ONE

To open the District 9-AA Tournament, the Lions and Champions squared off on Saturday night in the first round with Cannon County holding off a late Cascade rally to win 8-5.

Playing for the first time in almost a week, the Cascade bats struggled to find any groove, managing just four base hits in the entire game while never having a single multi-hit inning. It was even more bewildering because Cannon County gave soft-tossing Eli Morris the start on the mound, and he threw 4.2 innings of three-hit, two-run ball while striking out only three and walking four on 88 pitches.

Cascade’s ace, Walker Craig, got the start on the mound, but he was unexpectedly pulled before the start of the fourth inning after throwing only 72 pitches. He only gave up two runs on a pair of hits, but he did walk four batters even though he struck out five.

Walker Craig (9) will continue his career at Dyersburg St. C.C. in the fall.

Zach Crosslin came on in relief at the start of the fourth inning, but the decision to pull Craig immediately backfired as Crosslin walked the first four batters he faced on 16 pitches. After head coach Travis Sheffield pulled Crosslin for usual Tuesday night starter, Jayden Hathcock, Cascade was able to get out of the fourth inning and avoid a nuclear-meltdown-level disaster, trailing just 5-2.

Cascade actually took a 2-0 lead after the first two innings as Craig managed to skirt around a bases loaded jam on the mound in the first inning. Jayden Hatchcock drove home Logan Green on a double to right field in first, then after James Magee worked a leadoff walk in the second, Connor Melson delivered a double that split the gap in right-center field to double the hosts lead, 2-0.

Cannon County did respond in the third inning, and after a pair of walks to start things off to the top two hitters in the Lions’ lineup, Ben Kauffman delivered a hard hit single into center field that drove both runners home to tie the game at 2-2. 

The Lions kept the pressure on, loading the bases with one out before Craig induced a double-play ground ball from Logan Fritts to get out of the jam.

Unfortunately for Cascade, Cannon County would tack on three more runs in the fourth inning after pulling Craig, and the mountain became too big to climb. Morris continued to give Cascade fits at the plate before being relieved by A.J. Armstrong, who got the final out of the fifth inning and the first out of the sixth on 17 pitches before Eli Pelham took his place. 

Meanwhile, the Lions tacked on three more runs in the top of the sixth against Caden Hammonds to take a commanding six-run lead, 8-2, with just six outs to go. 

Luck was also on the side of the Lions, as in the sixth inning with two outs and only leading 6-2, a slow-rolling ground ball by Waylon Crawford rolled back into fair territory down the first base line after starting foul, and after the first baseman, Craig, realized it would stay fair, went to try and field the ball. Instead, the baseball took a wicked bounce off of first base, squirting into the outfield and scoring the final two runs of the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Cascade found some life after a 2-RBI double from Logan Green followed by a wild pitch that allowed him to score from third made it an 8-5 game, but Cascade would not be able to score again in the seventh, as Cannon County held on for dear life to continue their postseason success in Bell Buckle.

GAME TWO  

In the first of two games on Sunday, the Cascade Champions run-ruled the visiting Grundy County Yellow Jackets to finish 3-0 against Grundy and end their season, 12-2. 

Jayden Hathcock started on the mound, throwing just 35 pitches while allowing one run on three hits and three strikeouts across two innings. 

Powered by an eight-run second inning, Cascade jumped out to a 9-1 lead after the first two innings, effectively ending the game before it had a chance to begin. Sawyer Lovvorn led the Champions at the plate, going 3-3 with a walk and driving in a trio of runs. 

Logan Green (3) scores during Cascade's eight-run second inning against Grundy County.

Cascade added one run in the fourth and two in the fifth to complete the run rule victory with Jordan Childress taking a bases loaded walk to drive home his second run of the day. Fittingly, Lovvorn also scored the literal walk-off winning run to end Grundy County’s season and give Cascade a rematch with Cannon County later Sunday night.

Cascade put together six hits in the knockout blow that was the second inning with all the damage coming against Grundy County starter, Jaxon Woodlee. Woodlee was pulled after the second inning ended, giving up nine runs on six hits and five walks while striking out just three batters on 85 pitches. 

James Magee came on for Hathcock to start the third inning, and he closed out the final three innings only allowing one run on two hits and a walk while striking out three batters.

Cascade as a team drew 10 walks at the plate while only striking out four times in five innings, and they also tallied eight hits en route to the blowout win.

GAME THREE

Unfortunately for Cascade, the good vibes established in the first game of the day on Sunday were completely gone by the completion of the third inning of their rematch against Cannon County. 

It didn’t look like it would be that way in the first inning. A Jordan Childress lead off single, a Jayden Hathcock infield hit, and a James Magee HBP loaded the bases for the hot-hitting Sawyer Lovvorn, and Lovvorn delivered big-time with a bases clearing double that split the left-centerfield gap to give Cascade a 3-0 lead heading into the second inning.

Sawyer Lovvorn (19) ended his career going 5-9 with 6 RBIs and 2 doubles in the postseason.

Jayden Hathcock, pitching for the third game in a row for the Champions, wiggled his way out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning, and followed that up with a 1-2-3 second inning to maintain the three-run lead. 

After Eli Pelham gave up a pair of base hits in the second inning, Cannon County played their trump card. Head coach Colin Jones brought A.J. Armstrong to the mound, and after throwing 71 pitches  earlier in the day in the Lions’ 7-5 loss in Chapel Hill, had just 49 pitches remaining to throw in the night cap.

With this being his third game in three days and already having 71 pitches on the day, Armstrong was lights-out immediately. With the heart of the Cascade order due up, Armstrong stranded two runners in scoring position with a pair of strikeouts on six pitches. 

Perhaps filled with a new level of confidence with their ace on the mound, the Cannon County offense went nuclear for seven runs in the third inning. Armstrong drew a leadoff walk against Hathcock, bringing up Ben Kauffman, who promptly crushed a no-doubt two-run home run over the center field wall to trim the Cascade lead to 3-2, but it was just the beginning for the Lions’ attack. The visitors sent 11 batters to the plate, tallying just four hits, but capitalizing off poor defensive execution by the Champions paired with those hits being timed perfectly led to Cannon County taking a 7-3 lead.

A four-run lead with Armstrong on the mound felt like a bigger hill to climb than just four runs, and as he continued to mow down Cascade hitters, the mood in the hosts’ dugout grew more wary by the minute. Armstrong would finally be taken at the start of the sixth inning after a leadoff walk after 3.2 innings. He faced 12 batters total on just 42 pitches, and he struck out 10 of them while only walking the last one he saw.

It was a jaw-dropping performance, and he exited with a 9-3 lead in the sixth inning. Ben Kauffman took over, but the Cascade bats showed signs of life once again as they loaded the bases with two outs. The ninth hitter in the lineup, senior second baseman Connor Melson, stepped into the box, and on the second pitch he saw, Melson took a hanging breaking ball to the wall, splitting the gap in right-centerfield for a bases clearing double to make it a three-run game again at 9-6. 

Unfortunately, senior Zach Crosslin injured himself on a checked swing in the at-bat before Melson, meaning Crosslin would not be able to come out to pitch the seventh inning. He finished going 3.1 innings, only giving up two runs on four hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts as he kept Cannon County’s offense at bay to give his own offense a chance to rally.

Zach Crosslin (11) kept Cannon County's offense in check across 3.1 IP on Sunday night before exiting with an injury.

For the seventh inning, Sheffield opted for Dawson Youngblood, a promising freshman with  two prior appearances on the year, to try and tackle the 2-3-4 hitters in the Lions’ lineup. 

Instead, A.J. Armstrong  continued his torrid start to the postseason at the plate with lead-off  home run over the centerfield wall. Cannon County ended up scoring six runs in the inning, sending 11 batters to the plate for the second time in the game to take a 15-7  lead needing to just get three more outs. 

Cascade would score one run in the seventh, but Kauffman was able to close out the Champions’ season shortly thereafter as the Lions clinched second place in the District 9-AA Tournament, clinching a spot in the Region 5-AA Tournament alongside Chapel Hill. 

Cascade’s season ends earlier than expected at 15-9 (6-2), and it will be interesting to see how the team looks next year after graduating nine seniors from this year’s team.