By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
An early exit from the Class A state baseball tournament did not diminish the accomplishment of getting there for Union City head coach Cole McAdams.
“A lot of teams would’ve liked to be sitting here talking about the state tournament experience,” the Tornado skipper said after UC was ousted from the double-elimination event following a 6-2 loss to South Pittsburg Wednesday.
“There’s only one team that’s going to leave here completely happy, but, for us, the journey to get to the state tournament and the effort and attitude of our guys this season will be nothing but good memories for me and our program.”
The Twisters, who ended McAdams’ eighth season at the helm with a 22-14 record, fought through multiple instances of adversity in the postseason to make the state tournament for the 11th time in program history and second in McAdams’ tenure.
Union City finished second in both the district and regional tournaments, battling through a handful of elimination games to make the Elite 8, where they lost to two-time defending state champion Eagleville and SP in back-to-back outings.
“It’s always good to measure your teams against other good teams, and what better way to do that than at the state tournament,” the coach continued. “When you get to this level, everyone has good pitching, they all can hit the ball, and play good defense.
“You have to take advantage of the handful of opportunities presented to you, and everything is magnified when you don’t. We let a few chances get away from us in the two games here, and if we hadn’t, we might be talking about a different outcome in our game against South Pitt.”
UC broke a scoreless deadlock in the fifth when Luke Joslin scored on a passed ball. The Pirates immediately answered in the bottom of the frame, erupting for six runs with the aid of three walks, a hit batsman, and a passed ball. A two-run tie-breaking double was the biggest of SP’s three hits in the frame.
The Twisters threatened in their final bat, with the first three batters reaching base and Copleland Chism driving home a run to narrow the difference to 6-2. A blistering line drive by Troy Joslin was snared and turned into a double play, however, effectively snuffing out the Union City threat.
Will Ragsdale and Tucker Davis went 2-for-3 for the Tornadoes, with Davis and Luke Joslin scoring the team’s runs.
Troy Joslin started and went five innings, giving up five earned runs before giving way to Logan Dawkins, who posted a clean frame of relief.
“If Troy’s hit gets through, or if another ball finds grass, we could be having a totally different conversation,” McAdams continued. “Things don’t always work out the way you want them to, though.”
The coach then paid tribute to a large senior class, with a handful of them making up the meat of the Tornadoes’ order throughout this season and the past.
“I’m so proud of our seniors,” McAdams concluded. “Graduation will leave a big hole in our everyday lineup as we’ll lose our 2-thru-6 guys, and they’ve played a lot of innings for us. Will (Ragsdale) has been a solid third baseman, and Kyler Southerland had an unbelievable defensive year. Barrett Cox was really good at second base, was the pitcher of the year in the district, and was one of the anchors of our staff.
“Skyler Hall was a three-year starter at first base, and Luke Joslin did a really good job for us in the outfield and hit the ball as well as anybody here in the state tournament.
“Those guys were good for our program, and, in turn, I think our program was good for them.”