Ooltewah Wins Three In Lady Owls Invitational Softball

After two games in the Lady Owls Invitational, Ooltewah softball coach Jon Massey was bemoaning a lack of offensive production.

While beating LaVergne, 2-0, and Bledsoe County, 3-0, the streaking Lady Owls managed just 12 hits.

In Friday’s third game, Ooltewah crushed Page, 15-0, and banged out 13 hits to back the three-inning, no-hit pitching of Cameron Baltimore.

Ooltewah improved to 14-1 and extended its winning streak to 12 straight games.

“Well,” Massey said, “we finally swung the bats better.

In our first two games we had a lot of lazy popups and soft grounders. Against Page we hit the ball hard drives and hard ground balls. Everybody says hitting is contagious, and it was for us in the last game.”

Most consistent all day at The Summitt were the Lady Owls’ pitching and defense. Starters Jade Raschke, Monica Thompson and Baltimore gave up a combined seven hits and fired three consecutive shutouts. The Lady Owls outscored their three opponents, 20-0.

Due to the tournament’s time limit on all games, the Lady Owls beat LaVergne in six innings, Bledsoe County in five and Page in just three.

The LaVergne game was the day’s most important for the Lady Owls, since it was against a Pool A opponent. The Bledsoe County and Page games were non-pool contests.

The tournament resumes Saturday morning and the championship games in Gold and Silver brackets are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.

Of note on Friday, King’s Academy from Seymour, which is coached by Marc Weekly, son of University of Tennessee softball coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly, won three games. King’s beat LaVergne, 9-3, Page, 13-1 and Cumberland County, 12-0.

Marc Weekly also serves as the TKA athletic director.

Rhea County’s Lady Golden Eagles rode the three-hit pitching of freshman pitcher Abby Wall to a 7-1 decision over Bledsoe County in one of the day’s first games.

Ooltewah 2, LaVergne 0: The Lady Owls started Pool A play with a hard-fought win over the Wolverines (0-10).

Kayla Boseman started the first inning with a single, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Tiera Lemon popped to shortstop. Allie Jones doubled to right-center field and scored on Mabry Carpenter’s opposite-field single to right. Shelby Sutton struck out to end the inning.

“Their pitcher jammed me and I don’t how it went to the right side,” said Carpenter, a freshman. “It was 1-0 for a long time, but I was glad to have that one run.”

Boseman singled and Lemon walked starting the third, but both were stranded when Jones popped out to first, Carpenter flied out to left and Sutton struck out.

Ten straight Lady Owls were retired until Carpenter singled. Sutton bounced grounded to first for the second out and Aubie Collake ripped a clutch single up the middle to score Carpenter. Summer Williams singled to right-center as the 75-minute time limit stopped the game.

“We’ve been off for five or six days and we didn’t hit the ball very well,” Lady Owls coach Jon Massey said. “We were lunging. I told them to get the ball out of the air and what do we do? We hit fly balls and they’re going nowhere today (due to a strong wind blowing in).

“We got sawed off five or six times and I thought we should have leveled off better with our swings.”

While the Lady Owls’ bats weren’t doing a lot of damage, pitcher Jadyn Raschke kept the Lady Wolverines away from home plate.

Raschke escaped a two-on, one-out mess in the fourth – she gave up LaVergne’s only two hits in the inning – with a pop to the catcher and a groundout.

In the fifth, Raschke walked the leadoff batter, but Williams jumped out from behind the plate, caught a bunt pop and threw to second baseman Sutton covering first for the double play. Williams almost pulled off the same play an inning later, but her throw to first scooted into the outfield grass.

Raschke retired the Lady Wolverines in order in the sixth to nail down the shutout.

“When I get in those situations I’ve got to throw the ball harder, throw strikes and make the other team swing,” said Raschke, who struck out three and walked three. “Summer really did good defensively and almost had two double plays.”

Said Massey, “We’re relying on defense and pitching right now. Jadyn had a great game by hitting her spots. She was around the plate all day and worked out of a couple of jams, with a little help from Summer.

“If we can ever figure out to stay back, adjust to the strike zone and swing at strikes we have a chance to score some runs.”

Ooltewah 3, Bledsoe County 0: The Lady Owls got four of their five hits in the first inning. Boseman singled and later scored on a wild pitch. Jones doubles and went to third on the wild pitch and came home on Carpenter’s groundout.

Boseman blasted a solo homer in the fifth and that was enough for pitcher Monica Thompson, who held the Lady Warriors to five hits.

Ooltewah 15, Page 0: Baltimore overpowered the Lady Patriots, retiring the first seven. An error by Carpenter at third broke the streak. A wild pitch moved the runner to second, but Baltimore got her second and third strikeouts of the inning to complete the shortened no-hitter.

“I felt great,” Baltimore said. “I threw better than I have recently and I have to stay confident in my pitching. With all the runs we scored I was very relaxed out there.”

This one turned into a blowout and only got worse for Page.

Carpenter delivered a two-run double and scored on Sutton’s hit to right-center for a quick 3-0 lead. Boseman and Lemon started the inning with back-to-back singles.

An inning later, Ooltewah sent 11 batters to the plate and six collected hits.

Boseman singled. Lemon singled. Jones pushed both home with her second straight double. Carpenter pushed Jones home with a two-bagger. Carpenter scored on Sutton’s hit, the fifth in a row to start the second.

“We just wanted to get it over with quickly,” Carpenter said. “We hit well and got good pitching. (Saturday) our confidence should be even stronger after this game, especially with Kayla pitching.”

Massey, in his second year leading the Lady Owls, was a bit more at ease after the shellacking dished out to Page.

Ooltewah’s first five batters – Boseman, Lemon, Jones, Carpenter and Sutton – were combined 12-for-15 with 10 runs scored and 11 RBIs.

The Lady Owls will play Sequoyah at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in their next pool test and they take on William Blount at 1 p.m.

“Our pitching is solid and I like our defense,” Massey said. “And when our girls get on base we can make things happen. The next two teams we face are pretty good.”

Rhea County 7, Bledsoe County 1: The Lady Warriors had trouble handling Wall’s offerings. She gave up a second-inning triple and a single in the fifth.

The only damage was Taylor Marsh’s solo home run in the third inning.

“I had good speed and location on my pitches,” Wall said. “That home run was on a changeup and I knew it was gone. That girl looked like she was 18 years old.”

Rhea County coach Leah Price didn’t inform Wall that she would be starting this year until just minutes before the season opener.

“She really surprised me,” Wall said. “I almost died when she told me.”

Price coached Wall in middle school and purposely kept her decision from Wall throughout preseason practice.

“I wanted her to earn it,” Price said. “My pitcher (Raegan Gravett) from last year had knee surgery last October and I knew Abby was going to be our No. 1 pitcher this year.”

Wall has won all three of Rhea County’s District 6-AAA games. She was coming off a 9-5 loss to Walker Valley when Rhea County blew a 5-0 first-inning lead.

Ashton Hill had a RBI single in the first inning. Sara Beth Mitchell added a sacrifice fly in the second. Diva Tran singled in a run in the fourth, Hill added a run-scoring hit and three other runners scored on a fielder’s choice, groundout and wild pitch.

“We had pretty good situational hitting,” Price said.

LINESCORES

LaVergne                             000 000 – 0 2 0

Ooltewah                            100 001 – 2 7 1

Sells and Luna; Raschke and Williams.

Bledsoe County                                000 00 – 0 5 0

Ooltewah                            200 01 – 3 5 0

Bayless and Collier; Thompson and Forrester.

Page                                      000 – 0 0 2

Ooltewah                            366 – 15 1

MacDonald and Marlin; Baltimore and Williams.

Bledsoe County                001 0 – 1 3 0

Rhea County                      110 5 – 7 8 1

Bayless and Collier; Wall and Hill.

Lady Owls Invitational

Friday’s Results

xOoltewah 2, LaVergne 0

Ooltewah 3, Bledsoe County 0

Ooltewah 15, Page 0

LaVergne 6, Bledsoe County 1

xPage 6, Cumberland County 0

xWilliam Blunt 10, Cumberland County 1,

xKing’s Academy 13, Page 1

xWilliam Blount 9, Page 0

xKing’s Academy 12, Cumberland County 0

xRhea County 7, Bledsoe County 1

xHardin Valley 4, Bledsoe County 0

xRhea County 5, Brentwood 1

xHardin Valley 1, Brentwood 0

xRhea County 5, Hardin Valley 4

Saturday’s Schedule

Field 4

xKing’s Academy vs. William Blount, 10 a.m.

Page vs. Brentwood, 11:30 a.m.

Hardin Valley vs. Cumberland County, 1 p.m.

Field 5

Rhea County vs. Sequoyah, 10 a.m.

xOoltewah vs. Sequoyah, 11:30 a.m.

xLaVergne vs. Sequoyah, 1 p.m.

Field 6

xBrentwood vs. Bledsoe County, 10 a.m.

Rhea County vs. LaVergne, 11:30 a.m.

William Blount vs. Ooltewah, 1 p.m.

X – Pool games

Note: Gold, Silver bracket games start at 2:30 p.m.

 

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)