Like all other prep baseball teams in Tennessee, the 2020 Forrest graduating class’ senior season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Rockets got to play one last game on Senior Night at Chapel Hill as the participated in an intra-squad contest in front of a packed house on Friday.

The Blue Team consisted of all the Forrest underclassmen who squared off versus the White Team, made up of all four 2020 seniors and some past greats from the school.

Current manager Andy Burkett and coach Jacob Daughrity suited up along with senior Connor Lewis, and the senior/FHS alum brothers’ combo of Blaize and Boone Sweeney, Spence and Bryce Oliver, and Cody and Peyton Sisk.

Forrest grads Grayson Whaley umpired behind home plate and Ryan Moses umpired in the field in the nine-inning game won by the White squad 9-1.

The legendary and still undefeated Dan Sweeney was at the helm for the White team and manger in training….Max Kirby captained the Blues for his first career loss.

“That was a blast, it was awesome to see the buy-in from our current team, it was awesome to see a lot of these old guys come out and see if they can still do it, but most importantly it was awesome to see our seniors perform so well and I’m so glad we had a night dedicated to them, so it was just awesome,” Burkett said.

Lewis picked up the win on the mound for the White team, tossing three innings of no-hit ball, striking out four, walking three, and hitting two Blue team batters.

Bryce Oliver did heavy damage at the plate for the White squad, going 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and five RBIs to go along with one inning on the hill.

Blaize Sweeney had three hits in five at bats, scored a pair of runs, stole a base, and pitched a no-hit, scoreless ninth inning.

“It was just great, these guys couldn’t have done any better, it was just great being out here playing the game I love with my friends and my family,” Blaize Sweeney said. “This means the world to me, I couldn’t have gone out a better way.”

Bryson Smith had the lone hit for the Blue Team, rapping a leadoff single in the top of the eighth inning and came around to score on a Cole Davis sacrifice fly RBI.

Three Blue Team hurlers began the game with three scoreless innings before the White squad finally got warmed up as they put three runs on the board with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning on a run-scoring single to left field by Boone Sweeney and a two-run single to right field by Bryce Oliver.

“It’s been a long time, it felt good to come out here and play with my little brother and run around, it felt just like the old times, it was just like riding the bike again,” a smiling Boone Sweeney said. “I’m glad I grew up here man, there are not many places you can come back and do this and to relive it with your brother’s last game, so I was just glad to be a part of it.”

The White team added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Cody Sisk and Spence Oliver came up with one-out, back-to-back doubles and an error on the Blue team to make it 5-0.

The Blues got two runners on board with two hits in the top of the sixth before Cody Sisk came up with an inning-ending strikeout.

“This year we haven’t had much hope for anything really, especially sports,” Cody Sisk said. “Our fans are great, they are always top notch and never fail to bring it, and I think we had more fans here today than anytime we do in the regular season.”

“It was like a dream to me, I never thought I was going to be back on the field, but when they put this game together it gave us all hope again.”

Daughrity showed he still has some wheels when he tripled to the right/center field fence to lead off the bottom of the inning and came home on Bryce Oliver fielder’s choice RBI to make it 6-0.

Spence Oliver blanked the Blue team on the mound in the top of the seventh before the Whites scored twice in the home half of the stanza when Lewis, Blaize Sweeney, and Boone Sweeney all singled to load the bases with one out.

A pop-up to the infield made it two outs, but once again Bryce Oliver came up huge when he drilled a two-run single to make 8-0.

“That was a blast, especially coming out here after everything got cancelled and stuff, so to get out here and play one more time and get to see everybody, it just shows our baseball team is one big family and at the end of the day, we have each other’s backs,” Spence Oliver said. “It was a blast being out there with my brother, I always wanted to be out there playing with him.”

“We always just missed each other, when he graduated I was a freshman, it was the same for Blaize and Cody, so getting to play with our brothers just shows we are one big team. It was a great moment out on that field, being able to play with my buddies one more time.”

Smith led off the top of the eighth with a base hit and went to second on an outfield bobble.

Smith stole third and came home on sacrifice fly to right field by Cole Davis to make it 8-1.

The White team rallied with two outs again in the home half of the eighth with Spence Oliver doubling and Lewis knocking in his classmate with an RBI single to left field.

Blaize Sweeney came to the hill for the top of the ninth and after back-to-back strikeouts, manager Jordan Voss came to the dish in his sandals and hit a game-ending pop-up to second on a bloop pitch by Sweeney.

“This is a special place, it’s always packed out here, we have unbelievable fan support, Chapel Hill is an amazing community that supports all these athletics out here and supports all these Rocket players and student athletes, so to see the turnout here and see them cheering for both teams, as a player and a coach it just doesn’t get much better than that,” Burkett said. “I also want to thank the school administration and the school board for making this happen and I always want to thank all the alumni who came out to support this team.”

The 2020 graduating class put up an impressive 68-45-2 overall record and won one regular season district title, two district tournament titles, two region titles, and made two Spring Fling state tournament appearances with runner-up finish in the 2018-2019 campaign.

Blue 000 000 010-1 1 1

White 000 321 21-9 15 0

Blue: Bryson Smith 1-for-3.

RS: Smith.

RBI: Cole Davis.

BB: Trey Williamson, Kain Moses, Justin Gillespie, Davis, Carter Walk.

HBP: Camden Vaughn, Williamson, Braden Bowyer, Shawn Brown.

SB: Smith.

SAC FLY: Davis.

LP: Trey Williamson (2IP, 5H, 5R, 4ER, 1BB, 3K).

Starting Pitcher: Allen Osborne (1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K).

Relief: Braden Bowyer (1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K).

Relief: Austin Lampley (1IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K).

Relief: Preston Gentry (1IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 1K).

Relief: Clayton Clark (1IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 0K).

Relief: Austin Dillon (1IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 0K).

White: Blaize Sweeney 3-for-5, Spence Oliver 2-for-4, Connor Lewis 2-for-4, Boone Sweeney 2-for-4, Bryce Oliver 2-for-3, Cody Sisk 1-for-5, Jacob Daughrity 1-for-3, Peyton Sisk 1-for-4, Andy Burkett 1-for-4.

RS: Spence Oliver 2, Blaize Sweeney 2, Jacob Daughrity 2, Cody Sisk 2, Conner Lewis.

BB: Daughrity, Bryce Oliver.

3B: Daughrity.

2B: Spence Oliver 2, Cody Sisk, Burkett.

RBI: Bryce Oliver 5, Spence Oliver, Lewis, Boone Sweeney.

SB: Blaize Sweeney, Peyton Sisk.

WP: Connor Lewis (3IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 3BB, 4K).

Relief: Cody Sisk (3IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 7K).

Relief: Spence Oliver (1IP, H, R, ER, 1BB, 2K).

Relief: Bryce Oliver (1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 2K).

Blaize Sweeney (1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K).