Knoxville’s season slipped away over three punishing innings, each Rocket City swing seeming to push the Smokies further from a game they had spent a year trying to reach. By the end of the fourth, the Trash Pandas had built a nine-run lead, silenced Covenant Health Park and all but settled an elimination game that ended in a 13-3 Knoxville loss.
Brody McCullough had worked through injury for the chance to make his first playoff start since 2022. Before the game, he spoke about what receiving the ball meant.
“Put the hard work in and just grateful for the opportunity to be here and be able to start a game that means a lot to the team we’ve worked hard to get to, so it’ll be fun.”
— Brody McCullough, Knoxville Starting Pitcher
The opportunity unraveled quickly despite McCullough’s six strikeouts and no walks. Caleb Bartolero opened the second with a single, and Tucker Flint sent a high fly toward the center-field wall. Kane Kepley retreated to the track, but the ball carried out for a two-run homer and the first crack in Knoxville’s season.
Rocket City widened it in the third. Arjun Nimmala reached on an error, Nick Rodriguez doubled, and Jake Munroe brought Nimmala home with a sacrifice fly. Jacob Cozart followed by ripping a double down the right-field line, scoring Rodriguez and ending McCullough’s outing after 2⅓ innings.
McCullough was charged with three earned runs. Dawson Netz could not contain the inning after taking over, hitting Bartolero before Eddie Micheletti Jr. drove a two-run double into the right-field corner. What had been a two-run game became a 6-0 deficit by the time Knoxville returned to the plate.
The damage kept coming in the fourth. Nimmala lined a solo homer to left, Rodriguez walked and Cozart turned on a high fastball, launching it to right for a two-run shot that landed atop the Watering Hole roof. Rocket City had scored nine times in three innings, including four in the third and three in the fourth.
Cozart finished 3-for-5 with a homer and a double, leading a 14-hit Rocket City attack that produced three home runs. Netz allowed four earned runs in 1⅔ innings.
Knoxville, meanwhile, could not find an early answer against Austin Gordon. The right-hander held the Smokies scoreless for five innings, allowing no earned runs with four strikeouts and one walk. Knoxville put two runners aboard in the fifth, but a double play ended that chance.
The Smokies finally broke through in the sixth. Josiah Hartshorn walked, Kepley and Andy Garriola were hit by pitches, and Ariel Armas dropped a soft single into left to score Hartshorn. The bases remained loaded with nobody out, but a strikeout, a lineout and another strikeout stranded all three runners.
Tyler Ras supplied Knoxville’s steadiest work from the mound, covering two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Rocket City added four runs in the eighth, with Jackson Brockett charged for four earned runs in 1⅓ innings, stretching the margin to 13-1.
Kepley gave Knoxville its last bit of resistance. He doubled to left in the eighth and scored on Garriola’s double to right. In the ninth, after Karson Simas walked, Kepley lined a ball into right and raced to third as Simas scored the Smokies’ final run of the season.
Kepley finished 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and a walk. Armas also had two hits, a walk and an RBI. Those late swings softened the final line but could not undo the early avalanche: nine Rocket City runs before Knoxville scored once, and a season brought to an end long before the final out made it official.