Heart and fight are the traits Poquoson High’s first-year baseball coach, Craig Zimmerman, has preached often to his players this season. They were in plentiful supply Saturday as the Islanders defeated Lebanon 2-1 at Kiwanis Park in Salem to win the Class 2 state championship.
The Islanders (17-8) manufactured the winning run in the bottom of the 10th and won on TJ Check’s walk-off RBI single with one out. Brody Bunting reached on an error to start the 10th and moved to second on Baker Green’s sacrifice bunt.
With first base open, the Pioneers (21-6) walked Eli Tyndall, the Islanders’ most dangerous hitter, to get to Check. Check’s base knock delivered the Islanders their fourth state title, on the field where they won their first in 2001.
“Getting the game-winning hit is the best feeling ever,” Check said. “I was sitting on a fastball, and luckily I got one right down the middle and took advantage of it.”
While Tyndall was denied the chance to get the winning hit, his stellar pitching effort was the primary reason the Islanders were in position to win. He pitched 7 2/3 innings before reaching his pitch limit, allowing just five hits and striking out 13 — tied for the most by an Islander in the past 16 years.
His performance in the seventh inning was pivotal. Lebanon used an error and a base hit to get runners on second and third with no outs. Tyndall got out of the jam by striking out the next three batters.
“In that jam I just thought to myself, ‘It’s either my moment or it’s going to be their moment,'” Tyndall said. “It came out being mine.”
When Tyndall exhausted his pitch count with two outs in the eighth, he was replaced by junior Mason Deas, who had pitched only five innings all season. But Deas showed heart in coming through with 2 1/3 scoreless innings, during which he allowed two hits.
“I hear a lot about this being my first year as coach, but I was under Kenny Bennett for 16 years,” Zimmerman said of the man who guided the Islanders to two state titles and three other state finals before resigning after the 2023 season. “I watched his organization and how he managed this program, and to be very honest, all we’re doing is carrying on the legacy.”
