Northpoint Christian wins TSSAA baseball championship after back-to-back runner-up finishes
MURFREESBORO - Northpoint seniors Connor McKnatt and Kentucky signee Hudson Brown asked one of their coaches, Ray Sandroni, what advice he had for them as a former state champion at Tupelo, ahead of the TSSAA baseball state tournament.
Sandroni told them to just play ball and play with no regrets.
That was all McKnatt and Brown needed to hear. McKnatt had the big play in the Division II-A championship game, getting a bases-clearing double in the third, helping Northpoint defeat Goodpasture 6-5 on Thursday afternoon at Reese Smith Jr. Field at MTSU for its first state title since 2009.
"It almost feels like a relief,” Brown said. “For us, the seniors, it felt like there was so much riding on it. … Our sole goal was, ‘We have to win this game.’”
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Brown entered the game having seven hits in his first seven at-bats at the state tournament. It was the perfect display of why Northpoint coach Stephen Kirkpatrick was confident his team would go undefeated in the Division II-A state tournament and why his team played with a lot more confidence this year than it did last.
"We felt like we were the best team in the state,” Kirkpatrick said after the game. “We just got to believe it and we just have to go play.”
The Trojans (35-6-1) were no strangers to playing in a state championship game in Murfreesboro. They lost the last two state championships, finishing runner-up to Goodpasture last year and Christ Presbyterian Academy in 2021.
This year, they got their dog-pile just in front of the pitcher's mound. They got their championship trophy presentation. And most importantly, they ended what was beginning to be a cycle of runner-up finishes in the state tournament.
"This is what my team wanted was to get back here,” Kirkpatrick said. “And it was kind of one of those things where I knew we were going to hit another gear when he got the state championship. And we did.”
Kirkpatrick knew his team was good enough to win its first state championship in more than a decade. While remaining humble, Kirkpatrick always had a confident mindset with the Trojans and how successful they’d be this season.
They had seven seniors on this year’s team who were ready to have their moment in the spotlight.
And when Goodpasture threatened to take that away from them, they remained calm and finished as state champions.
It was the best way Brown could end his high school career before graduating and moving on to SEC baseball next year.
"Thankfully for us, we got the result we wanted,” Brown said. “It was worth every second of it. It was amazing.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: TSSAA baseball: Northpoint wins state tournament over Goodpasture
