GHSA baseball championship: Tattnall storms past Savannah Christian to win (another) GHSA state title
Tattnall hasn’t played much clean baseball the past few weeks.
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That changed a good bit Tuesday.
The Trojans got the pitching, hitting, and defense en route to a dominating sweep Tuesday of Savannah Christian to win the GHSA Class A-Private baseball state championship in Savannah.
The Trojans won 11-1 in rule-shortened first game and then sealed the second game with five runs in the seventh to win 11-0.
Tattnall has won three of the last four GHSA Class A-Private state titles, and avenged a championship series loss to the same opponent on the same Grayson Stadium Field in 2017.
This is the 11th state championship for head coach Joey Hiller, three in the GHSA and seven in GISA. Tattnall has cracked the 30-win mark for the third straight year.
A year ago, Tattnall beat Prince Avenue Christian 11-0 and 5-2 for the title. The Trojans needed three games in 2016 to get past Hebron Christian – Tattnall’s semifinal victim in a harrowing three-game series – 2-1, 3-5, 5-0. That was Tattnall’s second season in the GHSA.
The suspense of the quarterfinal and semifinals was absent in the championship doubleheader.
Dawson Brown had a no-hitter through three innings of the nightcap, leaving after four with five strikeouts, four walks, and two hits. Carter Fink finished things up, surrendering three hits and three walks with a strikeout.
Meanwhile, Tattnall (35-3) batters forced Savannah Christian (28-9) pitchers to throw 160 pitches in the first game and 140 in the second to 89 and 120 for the Trojans.
Tattnall scored one in the second and two in the fourth, all three runs coming with two outs and errors being part of the scoring.
Savannah Christian coughed it up for a whopping six errors, leading to seven unearned runs in the nightcap.
A three-run fourth, with the way Tattnall was pitching and fielding, pretty much put it away. A walk, double by Fink, hit batter, Kaden Toth singled in a run, with Brett McHugh then coming in on a wild pitch.
Trey Ham, stymied in the first game, had two hits and three RBI for the Trojans, who needed only nine hits to get 11 runs. Fink had two hits and B.J. Spears two RBI. Every Tattnall batter got either a hit or a run.
Savannah Christian got on base, thanks to seven walks, and stranded 12 runners, three more than Tattnall.
The opener looked like it was setting a tone for a tight series.
The teams were tied through three, Savannah Christian getting one in the first and Tattnall one in the second, on a two-out double from senior Miles Morris.
The Trojans gained some control in the fourth, with some offense matched by pitching struggles.
McHugh led off with a walk, followed by single from Toth and Bo Hatcher. Spears brought in one with a fly to right, Toth advancing to third. That was big, because he scored on a passed ball two pitches later.
Walks to Brooks Gorman and Morris followed. After the second out, Hunter Alexander walked to bring in another run, and then Fink sent a two-run single to left for a 6-1 lead.
McHugh added a run with a single to right, and a grounder ended the inning with the Trojans up 7-1.
Tattnall added two in the fifth with two outs, on two walks and two singles, Alexander bringing in Morris and Evan Daniels.
The Trojans ended it with two in the sixth, on another Spears sac fly and Gorman’s game-ending single to left, McHugh and Toth coming in on the respective plays.
Gorman cruised to the complete-game win, needing only 89 pitches, striking out four with no walks and giving up seven hits.
Gorman went 3-for-4 and Hatcher 2-for-2 with two RBI. Alexander drove in three runs, while Spears and Fink added two RBI each.
Savannah Christian went through three pitchers who threw 160 pitches, struck out 10 and walked eight.