Soddy-Daisy heads into next week’s District 5-AAA baseball tournament as the No. 1 seed, but the outcome of Wednesday night’s Bradley Central-Ooltewah game determined the final two seeds still up for grabs.
The Trojans (17-8 overall, 10-2 in the district), breezed to the regular season title with a three-game edge over No. 2 East Hamilton and earned the tournament’s top spot and, more importantly, an automatic berth into the Region 3-AAA tournament.
“Obviously, our goal was to be the district regular season champion and No.
1 seed for the tournament,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said Thursday after attending a district coaches meeting in Cleveland. “With the region berth stipulation in effect, this is really huge for us. We’re not going up to McMinn County (the tournament host) with the idea of sitting back, getting fat and happy and thinking we’ve done something. We’re going up there to win the tournament.
“We know it’ll be tough because it’s easy to slip up. While we already have a safety net, we have to play hard and get an edge for the rest of the season.”
The Trojans, who lost 13-3 to Central in a non-district game Thursday night, still have to win the tournament to host a region semifinal game.
Soddy-Daisy lost to East Hamilton on Wednesday night, but clinched the role of pre-tournament favorite when Walker Valley knocked off Bradley Central.
On Thursday, the Owls (11-16, 6-6) defeated the Bears (10-15, 7-5), 10-6, and claimed the No. 4 seed. Walker Valley (5-6 league) is No. 5 and those two teams will play next Thursday at 6 p.m. at McMinn County High School at 8 p.m.
The No. 7-seed Cherokees (3-9) take on No. 6 Cleveland (4-7) in the tournament’s opening game on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
East Hamilton (7-5) is the No. 2 seed and won’t play until May 1.
Cleveland plays Walker Valley on Tuesday in the district’s final regular-season game.
“Obviously, our goal was to be the district regular season champion and No. 1 seed for the tournament,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said Thursday after attending a district coaches meeting in Cleveland. “With the region berth stipulation in effect, this is really huge for us. We’re not going up to McMinn County (the tournament host) with the idea of sitting back, getting fat and happy and thinking we’ve done something. We’re going up there to win the tournament.
“We know it’ll be tough because it’s easy to slip up. While we already have a safety net, we have to play hard and get an edge for the rest of the season.”
In 2014, No. 3-seed Soddy-Daisy reached the 2014 tournament championship game, but lost to Bradley Central, 1-0, when the Bears pushed across the game’s only run in the seventh inning on Austin Calfee’s game-winning single, a hit that ended a brilliant pitching duel between the Bears’ Ty King and Soddy-Daisy starter Colin Kearney and reliever Oz Perez.
The Trojans then lost to nemesis Cookeville in the Region 3-AAA title game and the next day dropped a 2-0 decision to Riverdale in the sectional.
In 2013, Soddy-Daisy limped into the rain-plagued district tourney as the No. 7 seed with an 8-21 record. The Trojans got hot and finished second to Ooltewah. They lost to Cookeville, 7-3, in the regional. The year before, Soddy-Daisy lost in the district tournament. In 2011, the Trojans went 27-14 and reached the state tournament and a year earlier had a 30-7 record, but lost in the sectional.
This year’s Trojans displayed solid pitching, strong hitting and a much-improved defense while rolling to the district regular-season championship.
The only blemishes on their league record were setbacks to East Hamilton (4-2) on Wednesday and Bradley Central (4-3) on March 31. Soddy-Daisy swept Cleveland, McMinn County, Ooltewah and Walker Valley.
The tournament concludes on May 5 with the championship game at 5 p.m. and an “if necessary” game at 8 p.m.
Ooltewah 10, Bradley Central 6: The Owls unleashed a 10-hit attack on the Bears and got two-run home runs by Andy Reed in the third inning and Caleb Collins in the sixth.
The Bears (10-15) had taken a 5-3 lead with a three-run third, but the Owls (11-16) countered with two runs in the bottom of the third and added five more runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings for the win.
Collins went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and the two RBIs. Reed also had two hits with a run scored and three RBIs. Mitch Duncan added two hits and scored three runs.
Bradley Central was limited to six hits by Ooltewah starter Ethan Walls and reliever Daniel Willie and Tanner Cox collected two of them, both doubles, and scored once. Tyler Carpenter smacked a run-scoring double and Jeremiah Sims added an RBI hit and scored a run.
Willie came on in relief with none out in the top of the third inning and turned in a solid effort, checking the Bears on two hits and one earned run over five innings. He struck out five and walked none.
Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, April 29
Cleveland vs. McMinn County, 6 p.m.
Thursday, April 30
Ooltewah vs. Walker Valley, 5 p.m.
Bradley Central vs. Cleveland-McMinn winner, 8 p.m.
Friday, May 1
East Hamilton vs. Bradley-Cleveland-McMinn winner, 5 p.m.
Soddy-Daisy vs. Ooltewah-Walker Valley winner, 8 p.m.
LINESCORE
Bradley Central 113 001 0 – 6 6 3
Ooltewah 302 113 x – 10 10 0
Thompson and Mantooth; Walls, Willie (3) and Vantiegham.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)