Winning Horsepower

Mustangs rally from slow start to Blount County championship

Heritage Middle’s Jacob Powell delivers the pitch against Alcoa on Saturday. Photos by Keith Driver

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

For three straight games last week the Heritage Middle Mustangs got behind early, rallied, then tore back.

Mustang catcher Hayden Gilliland checks out the baseball prior to an inning.

The last one, a 6-4 loss to Alcoa at the Blount County Middle School Baseball Tournament on Saturday, finished short of victory, Heritage turned back with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh.

No matter.

The Tornadoes were playing out of the loser’s bracket, put there by an 8-5 loss to the Mustangs three days prior. When rain late Saturday and much of Sunday washed out the field at Union Grove Middle, Heritage, the winner’s bracket champion, became the 2016 Blount County champions.

What a ride.