A group of former Pioneers proved this summer that you never get too old to play the game you love. Winning championships only makes it better too.
Several former standouts for the WCHS baseball team banded together to form Team Stache and dominate the Tullahoma Men’s Baseball League the last two months. The group lost just once during the regular season and put a final exclamation point on its successful run by beating the Shelbyvul Shovels 3-2 in the tournament finals last week.
Logan Underhill, who had an RBI double and led the league in hitting this summer, was one of the ringleaders in getting the team together. He had helped the Shovels win a title in the league in 2022, but knew victory would be sweeter if he could do it with his childhood teammates.
“Michael (Benusches), Sean (Whinnery) and I played and won it last year, but after that I knew I had to get the guys together. It was just fun playing baseball with guys I grew up playing with again,” said Underhill, who is just a few years removed from a dominant college career at Martin Methodist. “I also got to play with guys like Layne Roberts, Braden Bottoms, Tyler Prater and others when I didn’t get that chance in high school. Hopefully everybody will be able to play again next year and we can win again.”
Underhill didn’t have to do a lot of convincing to get former Pioneers to play. Chayse Frye, a star like Underhill on the 2014 WCHS team that won a district championship, leapt at the chance to pick up the bat again. A slew of all-district performers for the Pioneers, like Dylan Ward, Lee Carden, Jake Pennington, Isaac Golden, Tyler Prater, Merek McColloch, Trevor Collins and Logan Earls, soon followed.
Every game was like a Warren County baseball reunion, ranging from the guys who were stars a decade ago (Frye and Underhill) to kids who just finished school in May (Logan Earls). Loving being back on the diamond was unanimous among the group.
“It was a blast just being out there with the boys we used to grind with every day – it was a great time,” said Frye.
Carden, a three-time, all-district performer during his playing days, added, “Baseball is the greatest past time, so getting to play with the boys again was great. The game still got the chili hot just like it did 10 years ago – I just seemed to feel a lot worse the next day vs. back then.”
Making things more fun for the group was adhering to the team name. Most of the players did their best to come to the field each week with the best mustache, a time-honored tradition among baseball players. Who had the best ‘stache was a running debate all season.
“That’s a tough one (to answer). At one point, Tyler Prater had it – he had a nice Fu Manchu. But, for the duration of the season, it’s a toss-up between Lee and Benusches,” said Frye about the best mustache debate.
Having fun was easy when the team was winning – and they did that a lot over two months. Even those with the toughest positions to play after years away from the game – like Braden Bottoms serving as backstop – had nothing but good things to say about being back on the field with the boys.
“It felt great to be back on the diamond. It’s definitely more of a humbling game now. Chemistry is huge in baseball and we had great chemistry. When everyone can play and have fun, the game becomes easy,” said Bottoms.
The former Pioneers made it look easy at times against the competition in Tullahoma. Having some secret weapons always helped.
While the majority of the team was made up of Warren County alumni, they got some major help from Darin Cole. The former pitcher for the Memphis Tigers had one of the league’s most devastating breaking balls and he deployed it over and over to help Team Stache to the title. He was the winning pitcher in the championship game, while Roberts – a back-to-back District 6AAA pitcher of the year for the Pioneers in 2021-22 – earned the save.
It was a clutch performance as the Shovels made a late run in the final two innings, but the team’s mantra from the very start of the season powered through.
“Our team motto since we started hitting and throwing before the season was ‘We ain’t losing.’ We did lose one regular season game, but won it all in the end,” said Underhill.
Carden added, “We put together the best lineup that was loaded with local studs, so we had the confidence flowing that we were not going to lose.”
Now the former Pioneers face two big questions before next summer: Can they repeat as champions and who can maintain the best mustache for another year?
