BACK ON TOP: Gators take down BG to secure top seed in district

Published 10:55 am Wednesday, May 7, 2025

By Micheal Compton

The Greenwood baseball team had two missions Tuesday night in a quest to take the top seed in the District 14 Tournament away from Bowling Green or South Warren.

First the Gators had to beat Bowling Green, which would have clinched the top spot with a victory, but Greenwood also had to hold the Purples to four runs or less to prevent South Warren from winning the top spot on a three-way tiebreaker.

Greenwood took care of both tasks — pulling away late for a 7-1 win over the Purples on Tuesday at Greenwood High School.

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Zach Davis tossed a complete game and added three hits as Greenwood (21-6 overall, 4-2 District 14) avenged a one-run loss to Bowling Green on Monday to claim the top spot in the district tournament later this month.

“We didn’t talk to the boys about any of that,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “We told them to flip the page, move on to the next game. I thought we had a good round of (batting practice). I thought our kids were locked in. They did what they needed to do.

“Now we were scoreboard watching of course, but these boys weren’t. They were just playing.”

Bowling Green (17-9, 4-2) loaded the bases without a hit in the top of the first, but Davis was able to work out of it. It remained scoreless until the third before a single and a stolen base from Davis set up an RBI single from Andy Jolly that made the score 1-0.

Greenwood then used some trickery to limit a BG rally in the fourth. With a runner at second and one out, Davis faked a pick-off throw and the fielders reacted like the ball was thrown into the outfield The runner broke for third and Davis promptly stepped off the pitching rubber and ran to the runner to tag him out.

The play proved to be even bigger with Bowling Green getting three straight two-out hits — including a game-tying RBI single by James Yarbrough.

Jaggers said the hidden ball trick was a big swing in momentum.

“I’ve been running that since I was the (junior varsity) coach here,” Jaggers said. “It worked last week. It’s probably a 90% success rate this year. Worst-case scenario, he stays on the bag. Best-case scenario, we get the out. It’s unfortunate we get a three-hopper on the one and we don’t make the play there. It could have really continued to swing the momentum, but we were able to limit the damage to one inning there and I thought that was key.”

Davis said the success rate maybe wasn’t as high as his coach suggested.

“We usually run that play probably once a game, in a moment where it is a close game and we’ve got to get the runner at second,” Davis said. “He said it works 90% of the time, but it rarely ever works against people we have been running it against the four years I have been here — especially Bowling Green and South. The fact that it worked is a miracle, to be honest.”

The Gators got the lead back in the bottom of the inning with a two-out, two-run double from Davis. It remained 3-1 until the sixth, when Greenwood plated four runs — including RBI singles from Jolly and Whitt Glosick to break the game open.

“It was huge,” Davis said. “(Monday) night we had the lead late, but we didn’t have a big lead so we were all tight. I think that led to them coming back and winning. Tonight those runs we got at the end of the game were so huge because we got to go out there and play loose.”

The only drama left in the seventh was if Greenwood could keep BG to under four runs scored. Davis took care of that — allowing a one-out single and nothing else to clinch the top seed for the Gators, who will host the tournament.

Greenwood will open against Warren Central.

“Like I have said before, (South Warren coach Chris Gage) and I have had this conversation, how many districts in the state have more than one team that is in the top 20,” Jaggers said. “One, and it is the 14th District. We’ve got three. There are several teams in our region that can win it, but our district is one of the best.”

With the loss, Bowling Green drops to the third seed and will face South Warren in the opening round of the district tournament. The Spartans are ranked eighth in the latest statewide poll, with the Purples ranked 19th. Greenwood is ranked 11th.

“Zach Davis pitched very well,” BG coach Nathan Isenberg said. “We didn’t play awful. They played a great game. I’ve said from the get-go that us, South and Greenwood are very even. We all split head-to-head. That tells you a lot. We just didn’t take care of the run situation like we should, but that is just part of it. We have been banged up with a lot of injuries. I’ve been constantly having to move guys around. It’s a long season and of course we have a week and a half for district, so we have to get ready.”

Davis scattered eight hits and struck out four with two walks to earn the win. Jolly and Davis paced the offense with three hits each.

Yarbrough, Evan Schallert and Andru Jones had two hits each for Bowling Green.

Greenwood will play two at Highlands starting at 11 a.m. CDT on Saturday. Bowling Green will play two in Russell County on Saturday, facing Elizabethtown at 1 p.m. and Russell County at 3:15 p.m.

BGHS 000 100 0 — 1 8 2

GHS 001 204 X — 7 10 3

WP: Davis LP: Kries

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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