Red Bay dominates en route to Franklin County Tournament title

Just a quick glance at the box scores and it would seem that the Red Bay High School varsity baseball team’s path to the 2026 Franklin County Tournament championship on Friday, March 6, was an effortless one.

The Tigers, who hosted this year’s tournament, dispatched all three of their opponents—two of them by 16 or more runs—on their way to a second title in three years and didn’t allow a single run in the process, outscoring Vina, Tharptown and Phil Campbell 43-0.

“This was goal number one,” Red Bay head coach Donovan Hand said of his team taking the county tourney crown. “We have certain goals that we set in the offseason and the county championship is number one.

“It was good to have all the county schools at our place….and to win the county championship, honestly, in dominating fashion, it was pretty sweet,” he added. “It’s good for our team, good for our kids, good for our program.”

Red Bay opened the tournament with a 19-0 victory over Vina that ended in three and a half innings. A 10-run bottom of the first, highlighted by three RBI doubles from Jeremiah Thorne, Ayden Pruitt, and Carson McGee, put the Tigers on very firm footing early. RBHS then followed it up with a nine-run third that saw Thorne and Pruitt hit two more RBI doubles.

Thorne and Pruitt led in RBIs with three and four, respectively; meanwhile, Thorne and teammate Landyn Lewey finished with a game-high three hits each.

RBHS starting pitcher Landon Petree, who tossed three perfect innings, finished with nine strikeouts and received the win. Braxton Massey came in in relief in the top of the fourth, allowing one hit while striking out one.

Red Bay’s next victim was Tharptown in the tournament semifinal round.

The Tigers, while not as explosively as in the game against Vina, still jumped out to an early lead and went on to win 16-0. Red Bay’s scoring was more methodical in this one: the Tigers plated two runs in the top of the first, five in the second, four in the third, and rounded things out with a five-run fourth.

McGee, who hit a three-run home run in the second inning (which was followed in the next at-bat by a solo homer from Riley Carpenter), finished the game with a team-best four RBIs. Lewey, batting leadoff, also had a game with four hits, three RBIs, and two runs scored. Ten different Tigers ended the contest with a hit as they piled on 16 against the Wildcats.

On the bump it was Lewey who earned the win after allowing just one hit through three innings. He finished with seven strikeouts and didn’t allow a walk. In relief, Khalil Luster made an appearance and threw the final two innings. Luster also allowed just one hit and recorded two strikeouts.

The 2026 Franklin County Tournament championship game Friday night was a rematch of the 2025 finale. Last year Phil Campbell snuck past Red Bay 4-3 to take the crown; this season the Tigers avenged that defeat with an 8-0 win over their county rivals.

Red Bay opened the scoring in the top of the second inning on an RBI double from catcher Sawyer Humphries to make it 1-0. The Tigers then added to their advantage with a three-run third inning. Lewey hit a two-run bomb that also scored Petree and later Jaxson Swann was able to score on a wild pitch to make it a 4-0 ballgame.

The Tigers plated three more runs in the fifth thanks to a two-run single by Pruitt and a later wild pitch that brought Pruitt around to score; RBHS rounded things out with its eighth run of the game in the sixth inning after another PCHS wild pitch allowed Swann to score his second run of the game.

Five Phil Campbell pitchers made an appearance in the championship defeat, but it was Sage Morgan, who threw three innings and allowed four of Red Bay’s eight runs, that was stuck with the loss.

On the bump for Red Bay was Carson McGee, who threw a complete game and earned the win. McGee allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out 16 of the 26 batters he faced.

Red Bay’s Franklin County Tournament championship triumph—and the way in which the team achieved it—could be an early indicator of the season the Tigers are destined to have. RBHS is off to a 5-1 start, outscoring its opponents 71-12 in its first six games.

Hand attributes this team’s early season success to the players’ belief and “next man up” mentality.

“Right now I’m seeing the last two years of hard work and players trusting in our system and our coaches,” Hand said.

“We graduated five starters last year, guys that contributed a lot to our program and two of which are playing college baseball this year,” he added. “Now it’s kind of like ‘next man up’; there’s five guys that haven’t played a lot of varsity baseball, but they haven’t missed a beat because they’ve believed and they’ve worked and they’ve seen how the guys before them worked. Riley Carpenter, Landon Petree, Jaxson Swann, Ty Hester, and Sawyer Humphries, who’s a ninth-grader behind the plate and caught all three games Friday night. These guys believe and they’re working their butts off and have showed that they deserve what they’ve got so far.”

Winning the Franklin County Tournament feels good, of course, Hand said, but the county title is just one step on what the Tigers hope is a long, long journey this season.

“We’re off to a good start to the season, but obviously there’s still a long way to go,” Hand told the Franklin Free Press. “I think we’re going to be, one, a little bit better than I expected us to be; and, two, better than I think a lot of people were going to give us credit for. So we’re excited but there’s still work to do.

“The county championship was (goal) number one, the area championship is after that, and then hopefully we can win one round at a time in the playoffs. Those are our goals. We try not to look too far ahead, but this is step one for this year’s team,” the coach added. “Step one is accomplished, now it’s on to step two.”