Harding Academy of Memphis won their first state baseball championship yesterday defeating Davidson Academy 4-3 on a game-winning bases loaded walk.
Fletcher Parker drew the walk on a two-out, 3-2 pitch to score Eason Gilbert with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to give Harding the title.
“It was a dream,” said Parker. “Three-two, two outs, bases loaded, tied up … you couldn’t ask for better.”
The nephew I’ve spoken about a few times when writing recruiting updates on Marlon Brown is a member of the Harding baseball team. In fact, the kid facing the camera in the photo to the left is my nephew.
Harding won the first game against Davidson in the double-elimination tournament on Wednesday. The start of the second game wasn’t pretty for Harding, committing three errors in the first inning giving Davidson an early 3-0 lead.
Davidson relief pitcher Spencer Harp issued intentional walks to Tyler Stanford and Tyler Hickman to load the bases. Harp got two quick strikes on Parker putting him in the hole, 0-2.
“He’d walked a couple of guys, so I knew I had to be careful,” Parker said. “The first pitch he threw was right there.”
Just as quickly as Harp had gotten Parker in a 0-2 hole, he began to miss the plate. When he did find the strike zone, Parker fouled off pitches to stay alive. Harp made one last pitch to get Parker out, but missed outside to walk home the winning run.
Harding coach Al Stevens spoke about getting his players refocused after the first inning miscues.
“After that first inning, I asked our guys if they’d ever seen a game where somebody takes a lead and the other team comes back and wins,” Stevens said. “Everybody nodded their head.”
Harding got back into the game in the third inning when Hayden Parrish singled and stole second. Stanford walked and Hickman doubled to score both, cutting the lead to 3-2. Kyle Shaw’s RBI single drove in Hickman to tie the score at 3-3.
Davidson (33-8) threatened to take the lead in the sixth with runners at first and third with one out. With Taylor Hudson at the plate, he hit a hard grounder towards Hickman at first. He caught the ball, beginning a 3-6-3 double play that kept the score tied.
That set the stage for the exciting conclusion in the seventh.
Harding (20-13) entered the tournament as the lowest seed but kept winning despite making a ton of errors. They entered with the fewest wins among the four teams at state, but won three games in a row when it mattered most.
Congratulations to the Harding Lions for a well deserved state title.
