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BRISTOL, Va. – When Tennessee High’s Stephen Mullins hit a two-run double with two outs in the top of the first inning of Thursday’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Game at DeVault Stadium, he didn’t know how important the play would turn out to be.

Or that it would be the start of an offensive explosion.

“Definitely not,” Mullins said.

Northeast Tennessee notched an 11-10 victory over Southwest Virginia in the third annual high school showcase event, but the contest wasn’t settled until Bradley Strong of Richlands flied out to deep center field for the final out of the game with the tying run on second base.

“I don’t know what happened to the ball,” Strong said. “I thought I lifted it high enough, but the center fielder made a great play on it. … I knew a base hit would tie the game, but I ended up going for the win, but it didn’t work. But that was a fun game. Anytime you battle back in the last inning like that, it’s fun.”

The NET All-Stars held a 10-2 lead and had yielded just four hits through the first eight innings. However, the Virginias erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the ninth to make it close and crank up the drama.

Patrick Henry’s Will Copenhaver had two hits in the ninth, including a three-run double that cut the Tennesseans’ lead to one run. It was quite the way to close out a prep career in the infielder’s final game in a PH uniform.

“I was hoping for something like that to get a few runs in and make it close,” Copenhaver said.

Copenhaver was named the MVP for the Southwest Virginia squad in a game that featured a combined 21 runs, 20 hits and 16 walks and took nearly three hours to complete.

“It was a fun game overall,” Copenhaver said. “Getting to play with all the different guys from different teams. You know a lot of them from just being around and playing a lot of baseball. It was a fun game.”

It was the final act together for the Tennessee High trio of Mullins, Chase Cunningham and Austin Snyder. Along with his two RBIs, Mullins also tossed two shutout innings of relief.

Cunningham was the winning pitcher and had a hit, while Snyder spent time at catcher and collected an RBI single.

“Ever since we were 8 or 9 [years old] we’ve played together,” Mullins said. “We’ve always played together and it’s fun to get to do this with them.”

Kevin Nelson blasted a fifth-inning home run and was the Northeast Tennessee team’s MVP, while Matt Harmon had a two-run single.

John Kelly had a hit and walked twice for the Southwest Virginia squad, while Seth Kegley drove in two runs.

Most of the participants likely agreed with Copenhaver when summing up Thursday’s event.

“It was a fun way to go out,” he said.

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