Wins allow Forrest to stay home for district tournament

The Forrest Rockets had a late night Monday after a long bus ride home from Huntland where they survived 7-3 in a nine-inning thriller before blasting the Hornets on Tuesday night 11-2 in Chapel Hill to earn the second seed in the upcoming District 9-A Tournament.

With the win, Forrest also won the tiebreaker over Community and earned the right to host one side of the district tournament bracket that begins Friday night.

"There is no place like home and fortunately that is where we get to play," said Forrest head coach Chris Parker. "If we can win our bracket, we get to take a short drive to Murfreesboro and have a chance to play for a championship, but we have to take it one game at a time, beginning with Huntland on Friday."

District schedule

The Rockets (18-12, 10-4) will play the seventh seeded Hornets (6-15-1, 3-11) at 5:00 p.m., while No. 3 Community (18-12, 10-4) takes on No. 6 Cascade (16-12-1, 6-8) 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game at Forrest.

In the other half of the bracket, top-seeded MTCS (19-7-1, 12-2) will host an opening round game versus bottom-seeded Fayetteville (1-23, 0-14), while Moore County (11-12-1, 9-5) and Eagleville (11-18-1, 6-8) will square off in the four-five game in Murfreesboro.

The two bracket winners will meet for the district championship on Wednesday, May 8 at the site of the highest remaining seed.

"It's been a while since our program has gotten out of the district tournament and made some noise in the region and beyond," Parker said. "That is something I sought to do when I came here and they want to do it as well, so I don't think there will be a lot of speeches and talks."

Game clinchers

Austin Harber's go-ahead base hit in the top of the ninth and a nine-pitch, three-strikeout gem by Forrest freshman reliever Ryan Yelensky in the bottom of the inning sealed the deal Monday night, setting up the all-important game for the Rockets on Tuesday.

Yelensky's late game heroics earned him the start in Chapel Hill and he picked up right where he left off, retiring Huntland 1-2-3 to begin the contest.

"Yelensky was out of mind, out of body, out of spirit last night when he threw just nine pitches to close out the game," said Parker. "He was well rested and we gave him a chance to start today, we knew he couldn't go deep, but he fought and gave us three innings before we went to Mathis, Byrd, and Daughrity, who were all in the zone tonight."

First sting

On offense, the Rockets got the first sting on the Hornets, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Huntland error and a fielder's choice RBI by Harber.

Yelensky set down Huntland in order in the second and the Rockets tacked on another run in the bottom of the inning on a fielder's choice ribbie by Jacob Daughrity via a bases loaded bunt.

Huntland's Tyler Cates led off the top of the third with a double, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Logan Groce, making it 3-1.

Yelensky ended his winning stint on the mound, beginning with a nice play at third base by Landon Jones on a bunt and the inning ended on a fly ball to Daughrity in center field.

Kennedy Mathis came to the hill in the fourth and gave up an unearned run, making it a one-run ballgame.

Explosive inning

In the bottom of the inning, Forrest busted the game wide-open, scoring four times on RBIs by Zach Horvath, Alex Brewer, and Jones, plus a wild pitch that scored Brewer with run number seven.

Mathis set down Huntland 1-2-3 in the fifth and the Rockets added some more insurance runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI base knock by Caleb Keller and a two-run single from Daughrity.

Ryan Byrd submarined the Hornets away 1-2-3 in the sixth before Jones put some icing on the two-seed party cake with a long solo homerun over the left field fence to leadoff the home half of the sixth inning.

Daughrity finished the job on the mound for Forrest with a scoreless seventh inning to end the 11-2 victory for the Rockets.

"We had a lot to play for and the kids realized that," said Parker. "They did a good job getting ready to play. These kids have a lot of character and it showed me and everybody in the community how much character they have."