CHAPEL HILL, Tenn. – The Cascade Champions (16-9, 4-4) took an early lead, but ultimately fell to Chapel Hill (21-9, 8-0), 7-2, as the Rockets clinched the District 9-AA Championship on Wednesday.

Cascade jumped out in front, 1-0, in the top of the first against Rockets’ starter Reid Gentry after Xykaiah Dixon laced a one-out double to center field and was driven home on a Caleb Crouch RBI-single to right. Gentry settled down to eventually strike out Wickey Parker and then induce an inning-ending flyout from Thomas Demartelaere to strand Crouch at second.

Wickey Parker, who had only pitched 10.0 innings on the season entering Wednesday night, set Chapel Hill down in order, punctuating the end of the inning with his first strikeout of the night against Kason Fuller.

Gentry seemed to find his groove starting in the top of the second, using just 13 pitches to bring his offense back to the plate. In the home half of the second, the wheels began to wobble for the visitors. Luke Allen worked a full-count leadoff walk, then advanced to second on a sac-bunt from Braiden Bourne. Micah Morgan then singled Allen over to third, and then Parker walked Travis Porter to load the bases with just one out. Allen then came home to tie the game on a wild pitch followed by an error at third on a ground ball hit by Gentry, allowing the Rockets to flip the game on its head and take a 2-1 lead.

Perhaps shaken by the sequence of events, Parker struggled to find the strike zone against the next two batters, walking in Chapel Hill’s third and final run of the inning. AJ Manus came in to relieve Parker, striking out Houston Matlock after Gentry was tagged out at third to end the frame. Parker’s line finished after 1.1 innings of work as he gave up three runs with two earned on one hit and four walks with the one strikeout on 41 pitches. 

Gentry worked around a one-out single by Jordan Childress in the top of the third, and the Rockets looked poised to tack on to their lead. Kason Fuller worked a full-count leadoff walk against Manus, but Manus induced back-to-back pop-outs, looking to work quickly through the inning. After a little blip of a four-pitch walk to Morgan, Manus seemed to have gotten out of the inning unscathed when Porter skied a routine fly ball to left field. However, Dixon was unable to fully secure the ball in his glove as it fell to the ground, allowing both runners to touch home and double the lead to 5-1.

Travis Sheffield pulled Manus to keep him under the 25-pitch limit, bringing in Elijah Wesenberg from center field to try and get through the third inning. Manus worked 1.1 innings, giving up three unearned runs on two walks with one strikeout and no base hits on 23 pitches.

Chapel Hill extended its lead to 6-1 following an error on Demartelaere behind the plate attempting to gun down the stealing Porter at third, but the ball rolled into left field instead. Wesenberg finally ended the inning with a groundout from Gentry, but the damage was done.

Neither team scored until the top of the fifth when Cascade’s Jaxson Milliken came around to touch home plate following a dropped fly ball off the bat of Dixon by Morgan out in left field, trimming the lead to 6-2. 

The Rockets got that run back in the bottom of the sixth following a leadoff double by Gentry and an RBI-single from Lane Smith to tack on an insurance run heading into the top of the seventh, 7-2.

Cascade got a two-out single from Childress, but Chapel Hill quickly brought in Tyler Baxter from short to record the final out and secure the District 9-AA Championship.

Gentry finished his night with 6.2 innings pitched, giving up two runs with just one earned on five hits and six strikeouts with zero free passes on 110 pitches. Wesenberg for Cascade threw the final 3.1 innings, giving up just one earned run on three hits and one walk with three strikeouts on 40 pitches. 

Cascade’s Jordan Childress finished 2-4 at the plate, Dixon went 1-4 with a double and a run scored, and Caleb Crouch finished 1-3 with an RBI. Jaxson Milliken was the only other Champion to record a base-hit, finishing 1-3 on the night with a run scored.

Cascade now faces off against Community for the final time this season in a win-or-go-home rematch with a Region Tournament berth on the line in Bell Buckle on Thursday night. First-pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.