Another impressive performance from Logan Underhill on the mound turned into a devastating loss in the matter of minutes Wednesday night.
White County rallied from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the Warren County High School baseball team 3-2 in the third matchup between the two District 6-AAA foes.
Warren County (12-13) was one inning away from completing a season sweep of the Warriors after Lee Carden broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning with a solo home run. Jon Reed followed with an RBI double in the sixth, giving the Pioneers a 2-0 lead and Underhill some cushion to work with while attacking the White County batters.
Underhill, who made his District 6-AAA pitching debut in a 5-0 victory over the Warriors earlier this season, was simply dominant for the first six innings. Underhill struck out the first four batters he faced – part of a night where he’d fan eight Warriors – and carried a perfect game into the fifth inning.
White County didn’t have a runner reach base until an error with one out in the bottom of the fifth, then Austin Glenn snapped the no-hitter with a single. Underhill pitched out of that jam to keep the game scoreless, but he was unable to get out of another jam in the final inning.
The Warriors got a shot of energy when Jake Young started the bottom of the seventh with a double into right field. The momentum continued to build when Jalon Foster followed with an RBI double of his own that sliced the Pioneer lead in half.
Underhill settled down to force the next batter into a groundball, but Reed couldn’t make the play at third base as White County had the winning run aboard with runners on the corners.
After his eighth strikeout, Underhill saw the Warriors tie the game on a groundball to shortstop. A minute later, White County was celebrating a win.
Darin Cole jumped on a 2-2 pitch and drove it into center field to bring around Dustin Cole and give the Warriors a dramatic victory.
The loss dropped the Pioneers to 6-5 in district play and into a tie for third place with White County. Warren County holds the tiebreaker with the Warriors after winning the season series 2-1. Warren County jumps back into District 6-AAA play Monday when it begins a home-and-home series with current district leader Cookeville. Monday’s game will be at Patrick Ramsey Field.
The Pioneers will play a series with LaVergne starting Friday night on the road at 6 p.m. The Wolverines will make the return trip to Warren County Saturday at 1 p.m.