CRESTVIEW — If there was a silver lining for the Crestview High School baseball team in Friday’s District 1-7A loss to Tate High School Bulldog Coach Tim Gillis couldn’t find it.
Even when Gillis admitted that the No. 1 seed in the district tournament will probably have multiple losses he wasn’t looking post what happened as the Aggies upended Crestview 7-4.
“You’ve got to hold serve at home,” he said. “We didn’t play well at home and I’ve got a problem with that.
“We’ve got to get better home.”
The Aggies did most of their damage in the second inning when the sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs on four hits.
Rashan Johnson’s two-run single was the big shot of the inning as the Aggies took the lead they would hold the rest of the night.
Tate added a fifth run in the top of the third and was up 5-0 before Crestview got on the scoreboard.
The Bulldogs (6-4, 2-1) finally scored in the bottom of the third.
Dustin Kervin was safe on an error to lead off the inning. Hunter Sullivan followed with a walk and Matt Gillis advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt.
Corey Armstrong was safe on an error to load the bases ahead of Austin Armstrong who singled to score Kervin.
Dustin Wimmer led off the Bulldog fourth by drawing a walk. Hunter Willis was next and wasted no time in driving a ball over the fence in left for a two-run homer that pulled the Bulldogs to within two runs of the Aggies.
Crestview cut the Tate lead to a run in the fifth inning when Justin Abdo reached on an infield hit a later scored on a Willis double.
Just when it looked as if Crestview had a chance the Aggies added a pair of runs in the sixth.
Up by three the Aggies brought in Mason Fryman, son of former Major League all-star infielder Travis Fryman to hold off the Bulldogs in the final two innings. Fryman did just that to pick up the save.
Tate pitcher Bryce Butler got the win. Matt Gillis took the loss for the Bulldogs.
Willis was the only Crestview player with more than one hit. Hunter Sullivan did lead off the game with a triple for the Bulldogs.
“We didn’t play very well,” Tim Gillis said, but give a lot of credit to those guys (Tate). They got some timely hits — some two out hits in clutch situations.
“And we left some runners out there. That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to find a way to get the job done and tonight we didn’t do it.”
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Aggies hand Bulldogs first district loss