On a beautiful Florida morning the Madison Warhawks kicked off the Hall of Fame Spring Classic Tournament against the McMinn County High School Cherokees from Athens, Tennessee, with a 10-0 win in a game shortened to five innings. The players had to get up before 6:00 am and had not practiced in three days and it showed. Madison snoozed to a 1-0 lead before breaking out for seven runs in the fourth inning aided by a shabby McMinn defense that made five errors. Coach Mark “Pudge” Gjormand later noted, “Our guys did a great job answering the bell for an early game after three days off. We brought good energy under some different circumstances.”
Matt James got the starting nod for McMinn and Andy McGuire greeted him by roping a 1-1 pitch to left field for a single. Moving the ball and mixing his pitches, James retired the next three hitters in order.Tim Davis took the mound for Madison and after a fly out and a called strike out Corey Wade flared a single to right field. The inning ended on a fly out.
Matt Livingston dropped a single into center to lead off the second. With one out, his aggressive lead off second distracted the third baseman who fielded a grounder but couldn’t decide whether to try to get Livingston off second or throw to first so everyone was safe putting runners at first and second. The inning ended when second baseman Wade backhanded a grounder up the middle and made a nifty play to tag the runner and throw to first to complete a twin killing. James walked leading off the bottom of the second and Corey Edgemon entered as a courtesy runner. With the middle infielders shading second, second baseman Nate Favero ranged far to his left to make a superb diving stop of a grounder and scramble to his feet to get the out at first with the runner taking second. As Davis was working on a strike out, catcher Jack Anzilotti alertly noticed the runner dancing off second. On a swinging strike three Anzilotti rifled the ball down to shortstop McGuire who threw to Justin Padgett as the startled runner broke for third. Padgett raced back toward second and made the tag for the third out on a K-2-6-5 double play that was as well executed as it was unusual.
In the top of the third Ben Socher slapped a two out single to the hole at shortstop and handily beat the throw to first. He stole second as Jonny Graham drew a walk. On a breaking ball in the dirt that squirted away from the catcher, Socher sped to third and the catcher threw to second to try to get the trailing runner. In a heady play, Graham slammed on the brakes and got in a rundown. Socher picked his spot and bolted home as McMinn eventually tagged Graham out but not before Socher had crossed the plate to give the Warhawks a 1-0 lead.First baseman Livingston began the bottom half of the frame making a nice play to field an in between hop and step on the bag for the out. After a walk Davis escaped trouble with a strike out and a soft liner to second.
The decisive fourth began inauspiciously with Favero getting hit on the foot with a breaking ball as he was around to bunt. Livingston laid a beautiful bunt single down the line that the third baseman was unable to field. Logan Claybrook drew a walk to load the bases. Favero loped home on a passed ball as all three runners moved up 90 feet. With the infield in, the shortstop muffed a backhanded attempt at a grounder allowing Livingston to score with Claybrook taking third and Evan Jacquez aboard at first. With runners at the corners, Claybrook scored when the throw to second in an attempt to nail Jacquez stealing went awry. Jacquez scooted to third on the play and came home on a wild pitch.
After a strike out, Padgett grounded to third and wound up at second after the throw was offline. McGuire laced a liner to the gap in right for an RBI as Padgett streaked home and McGuire took second on an error by the outfielder. Socher attempted to bunt for a hit and got all the way to third when the throw went down the right field line enabling McGuire to score. Graham scored Socher with an RBI ground out and Favero crushed a triple to the gap in left. The inning ended on another ground out but Madison had manufactured seven runs. It wasn’t pretty but it blew the game open.After a strike out to start the fourth, Alex Vinroe and James worked back to back walks. On a hard hit grounder up the middle, Favero, McGuire and Livingston dialed 4-6-3 for a slick rally killing double play.
The Cherokees brought Tyler Biddle in to pitch in the top of the fifth. Claybrook timed an outside pitch and drove a lead off double down the right field line. After a ground out the ball got away from the catcher on strike three. The catcher’s throw to first was wild allowing Claybrook to score with the batter cruising into second. Beau Overholt moved to third on a wild pitch as Justin Padgett was walking to put runners at first and third. Padgett stole second and on a shallow fly to left the throw home got away from the catcher allowing Overholt to score. The inning ended on a well hit ball to center.Davis was done pitching after four innings and 59 pitches. He yielded no runs giving up one hit while walking four and whiffing four. Henry Brandmark came in to pitch the fifth and after a lead off ground out gave up a walk to Biddle and Treavor Crisp rolled a single through a gaping hole on the left side. Brandmark bore down and struck out the top two batters in the line up to close the game out. Anzilotti made a nice block of the final pitch and threw to first for the last out.
But for McMinn’s defensive implosion in the fourth it would have been a close game. Coach Gjormand summed it up by saying, “Tim wasn’t at his sharpest today but he kept them off balance. I thought we applied pressure and created our own breaks.” 
