By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City head baseball coach Cole McAdams was quick to point out that the Tornadoes’ two games in the state tournament did not represent who his team truly was throughout the 2025 season.
“We had some things happen to us in these two days that were uncharacteristic of us during the season, ” insisted McAdams, whose squad was ousted from the double-elimination event Thursday with a 10-0 mercy-rule loss to East Robertson at Eagleville High School. “Every team here is good, and they’ll make you pay for any mistake you make.
“Everybody takes advantage of errors. We opened the door for our two opponents, and they capitalized on those chances. On the other hand, we weren’t able to do that against them like we did against other folks to get here.”
UC finished its otherwise stellar season with a 25-10 record, the program’s most wins since a school-record 36-4 campaign in 2018.
The Twisters, who dropped their weather-delayed tourney opener 5-3 to University School-Johnson City on Wednesday night, returned to the Spring Fling this year after making it last season. It marked the third time in nine seasons that a McAdams-led team qualified for the state event.
But a group that had won the district, regional, and sectional championships with generally solid all-around play and came in riding a 12-game winning streak became mistake-prone defensively while seeing their bats suddenly turn cold.
UC made six more errors in Thursday’s elimination game loss after committing five in its opener vs. US-JC the night before. Those half-dozen misplays led to six unearned East Roberton runs after the Twisters were guilty of five errors that produced four unearned tallies against University School.
And for the second straight game, the Tornadoes, who hit .320 on the season, could scratch out but four hits – Troy Joslin’s leadoff double representing Union City’s lone extra-base knock.
Ben Kail, Sam Jones, and Tucker Davis had singles for the Purple and Gold, with Davis and Ben Howell (two walks) reaching base twice.
ER made the most of its seven hits, pairing that offense with five Twister walks and the defensive mistakes. The Indians scored two runs in the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
Logan Dawkins (7-3) was the starter and losing pitcher. Half of the eight runs charged to the senior righthander were unearned. He gave up five hits and struck out six.
Kail got five outs in relief and was on the hill in the sixth when East Robertson pushed across its final two unearned runs that ended the contest early.
The contest was the last in a UCHS uniform for seniors Joslin, Davis, Dawson, Kail, Copeland Chism, Logan Vincent, and Jose Cortez Lopez.
“I’m really proud of those guys and for those guys because there was a time when I didn’t know if we were going to have a legitimate chance to get back to the state tournament,” added McAdams, who became the program’s winningest coach this season.
“They came together during Spring Break, though, and really started enjoying being around each other. That helped them to work hard for a common goal.”