For the second time in three seasons, intra-county rivals Forrest and Marshall County squared off in a District 12-AA Tournament elimination game.

In 2018, a 2-1 win over the Tigers in the district tournament loser’s bracket propelled Forrest to the state tournament semifinals where they lost 7-5 to eventual state champion Greenville.

On Saturday at Nolensville, MCHS senior Caleb McElhaney came up with a gem on the mound as he turned the tables on the Rockets, tossing a no-hitter to eliminate the Rockets.

“Caleb has been a standout all year for us, he has two out the three wins we had in the district,” Reese said. “He is a steady guy, he has good pitches and good control and is a very level headed young man.”

McElhaney struck out eight and only allowed four baserunners in the contest on three bases on balls and one hit batsman.

“I’m very happy, I couldn’t be happier,” McElhaney said. “I just wanted to come in and throw strikes and not have any walks.”

“I’ve pitched for a long time and I always kind of start slow and get stronger as the game goes on and that’s what happened.”

Forrest’s only run was unearned and it came in the bottom of the third inning when Andrew Timmons walked with one out.

Timmons took off for second base on a steal and the throw to try to catch him was high, skipping past the backup in the outfield and Timmons came all the way around to score.

Forrest freshman Brennan Mealer started on the mound for the Rockets and only gave up two hits in the contest, but had some control issues that eventually sealed his fate.

Mealer hit two Marshall County batters in the top of the first inning, but got out of the jam on an inning ending whiff.

McElhaney and Mealer continued to battle through four innings with the Rockets in front 1-0 when the Tigers rallied in the top of the fifth inning on back-to-back one-out singles by JW Beasley and Trey Warner.

Peyton Graves reached on an infield error to load the bases before Mealer beaned Ryan Kirby for the second time in the game and Beasley trotted home with the tying run.

John Morgan Thomas stepped in the batter’s box and Mealer nailed him as well, scoring Warner with the go-ahead run.

“The Mealer kid had been throwing a lot of pitches inside, so I told the guys we were going to fake the squeeze and we did and he put it in Thomas’ hip pocket and we ended up scoring on it,” Reese said. “That was big on that deal right there with the bases loaded and we got lucky right there with that big run.”

Max Kirby came to the hill for Mealer and struck out the next two Tiger batters to limit the damage to two runs.

The Rockets managed to get a runner in scoring position in the home half of the inning when Braden Bowyer drew a one and walk and Clayton Clark came on as a pinch runner.

Kain Moses sacrificed Clark to second, but McElhaney would have none of it as he recorded an inning ending strikeout.

McElhaney got stronger as the contest went on and faced adversity just once more in the contest when the Rockets got two on with two in the bottom of the sixth inning before McElhaney came up with another inning ending strikeout.

Max Kirby pitched a scoreless top of the seventh inning before McElhaney finished the no-no in style with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, including back-to-back strikeouts to end the game and keep the Tigers alive.

“I told the guys you can’t get down on yourselves, you have to try to play another day, and its one game at a time, one play at a time,” Reese said. “We were one pitch away from playing in the winners’ bracket game last night and I think that helped tonight by us coming back and battling versus Giles County.”

“I was glad we were playing Forrest instead of Central Magnet because I thought the rivalry would give us an extra lift that we needed. Now we have one day off and we will be ready to go Monday.”

Marshall County (15-11) plays Community in another loser’s bracket contest today at 4:30 p.m. in Nolensville.

The two teams split the regular season series with the Tigers winning 8-1 at home and the Vikings winning 5-4 at Unionville.

Community (21-13) beat Forrest (18-12) in round one and lost to host Nolensville (19-10) in the second round.

The Knights take on Giles County (13-15) in the winner’s bracket contest after the MCHS/Community game today.

The winner of the MCHS/Community game plays the loser of the winner’s bracket game at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow with the District 12-AA title game to follow.

Marshall County 000 020 0-2 2 2

Forrest 001 000 0-1 0 0

Marshall County: JW Beasley 1-for-3, Trey Warner 1-for-3.

BB: Ryan Kirby, John Morgan Thomas, Tristan Griggs.

RS: Beasley, Warner.

RBI: Ryan Kirby, Thomas.

ROE: Graves.

FC: Beasley.

HBP: Kirby 2, Thomas, Bryson Hammons.

SB: Kirby.

Totals

Team LOB: 8

Fielding

E: Hammons, Beasley.

WP: Caleb McElhaney (7IP, 0H, 1R, 0ER, 8K, 3BB).

Forrest: 0 Hits.

BB: Braden Bowyer, Andrew Timmons, Justin Gillespie.

RS: Timmons.

SAC: Kain Moses.

FC: Camden Vaughn.

HBP: Max Kirby.

SB: Timmons 2.

Team LOB: 3

E: Gillespie.

LP: Brennan Mealer (4.1IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 6K, 1BB).

Relief: Max Kirby (2.2IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 3K, 2BB).