Underdog Sequatchie Shocks Ooltewah In Red Bank Softball

Lady Indians Win Tournament With 7-6 Win Over Lady Owls

  • Sunday, April 26, 2015
  • John Hunt
Sequatchie County's Allyson Davenport jumps in the air to land on home plate as the Lady Indians celebrate her home run which helped their team take the championship in the Red Bank Invitational by a 7-6 count.
Sequatchie County's Allyson Davenport jumps in the air to land on home plate as the Lady Indians celebrate her home run which helped their team take the championship in the Red Bank Invitational by a 7-6 count.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Please don't be mislead by the win-loss record of the Sequatchie County Lady Indians.

Those young ladies who call Dunlap home improved to 12-14 overall on Sunday night as they rallied four times before scoring the winning run in the fifth as they beat the Ooltewah Lady Owls by a 7-6 final for the title in the Red Bank Invitational.

Ooltewah had won three straight games going into Sunday night's championship, but the Lady Indians refused to go home in second place, despite playing one of their worst games defensively of the entire season.

But do you remember that old biblical story of David and Goliath?  This was a very similar meeting with the same results.

But who cares how many errors you make as long as you come out ahead on the scoreboard?

"We had a rough start, but we finished strong and that's what matters," said Sequatchie County coach Kelly Somerville, a daughter of former Sequatchie County coaching legend Pete Swafford.

"We may have been a little bit intimidated by who was in the other dugout at the start of the game, but we kept battling and we got a win tonight we can really be proud of.

"I was really proud of Allyson Davenport, who is my leadoff hitter and only senior on the team.  She came out and ripped a line drive for a hit in the first and the rest of the girls followed suit.  I'm not sure I've ever coached a game where we made so many errors and still won, but Ooltewah is as good as any team we'll see the rest of the season.

"We are never satisfied with what we've accomplished as we want more," Somerville added.

Ooltewah, which had advanced to the championship game with a 7-1 win over the host Lionettes, got off to another blazing start against the Lady Indians as they scored three times in their first at-bat.

Tiera Lemon and Allie Jones both had hits, but two runs scored on wild pitches while the third came in as a result of two Sequatie County errors.

Despite that horrific start where nothing seemed to go right for the girls in purple, the Lady Indians came right back to score two in the first.

Davenport led off with a single and scored the first one on a single by winning pitcher Shiann Stockwell.  She then scored on a double by Amber Kilgore to make it 3-2 after one inning.

Two more errors in the second and and a run-scoring single by Summer Williams helped the Lady Owls rebuild that lead back to 5-2, but again the Lady Indians came storming back.

Jalyn Schmitt got hit by a pitch to lead off and was aboard when Davenport launched a rocket to deep center that easily cleared the fence, the mammoth stone wall behind it and almost hit a tree that was some 50 feet above and beyond the playing surface.

Davenport was at it again in the next inning as her two-run double gave Sequatchie the first lead of the game at 6-5.  Ooltewah starting pitcher Jadyn Raschke had walked three straight with one out to load the bases while Davenport greeted reliever Cameron Davenport with a stroke to the fence in left.

A groundout by Bailey Kennedy allowed Mabry Carpenter to score the tying run in the fifth, but the Lady Indians responded immediately and scored what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom of the fifth.

Davenport slashed her fourth straight hit to center and raced to third when her ball was mishandled before scoring easily on a fly to center by Bailey Longson.

While the Lady Owls had hit the ball hard all night and had 11 hits up that point, Stockwell pitched around a one-out error in the sixth while doing the same in the seventh after Kennedy had reached on a two-out single.

The junior right-hander then got her fourth strikeout of the game when Williams was caught looking to end the game.

Ooltewah coach Jon Massey had plenty of praise for the team that calls District 7-AA home.

"They came out swinging the bats tonight.  It seemed like every time we scored, they came right back to match us.  And that home run was one of the hardest and longest hit softballs I've ever seen," he said after a brief meeting with his team.

"Maybe we needed a game like this as it certainly shows us that we are nowhere near where we need to be.  We didn't play very well defensively and you can't give a team like that extra outs, but we needed to play some softball this weekend and I'm glad we got the chance to participate," he added.

While Davenport was the hitting star for the Lady Indians with four hits, three runs scored and four runs driven in, Stockwell was the only other Sequatchie County player with two hits.  Emily Yell, Michaela Newman and Kilgore had one hit apiece.

Ooltewah shortstop Tiera Lemon, who had three hits and scored three runs in the win over Red Bank, came back with another strong performance as she had three straight singles before flying to left in the seventh.

Jones and Aubie Collake both had two hits as Ooltewah finished with a dozen hits.

Baltimore, who had a complete-game victory in the game against Red Bank, was the losing pitcher in the finale after allowing the winning run on five hits in 3.2 innings.

Ooltewah also had a dozen hits in the win against Red Bank as Kayla Boseman had three singles while scoring one and driving in one.

Shelby Sutton and Allie Jones both had two this with Jones scoring twice. She also had a three-run homer in the second.

Freshman Hannah Wood had three hits for the day for the Lionettes and had nine for the weekend.  Bri Whitlock helped Red Bank's cause in the 10-5 win over Hixson with a two-run triple and a bases-loaded walk.  Hanna Land also had a two-run single in that first win of the day.

Sale Creek trailed Lookout Valley by a 3-2 score going into the fourth, but the Lady Panthers took charge with five runs in the inning.  Mikah McCombs scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch while Hannah Holland's two-run single provided a little insurance.

A two-run double by Katelyn Mitchell allowed Lookout Valley to get within 7-5, but never any closer.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SUMMARY

OOLTEWAH  320 010 0 -- 6 12 3

SEQUATCHIE COUNTY  222 010 x -- 7 9 7

Raschke, Davenport (3) and Williams; Stockwell and Newman.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)

Sequatchie County pitcher Shiann Stockwell picked up the win over Ooltewah.
Sequatchie County pitcher Shiann Stockwell picked up the win over Ooltewah.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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