Ooltewah freshman third baseman Mabry Carpenter went 6-for-12 on Saturday, scored four times and drove in eight runs, six in one game, helping the Lady Owls win their own Ooltewah Classic at The Summit.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Ooltewah finished its romp through the annual Ooltewah Classic softball tournament on Saturday, beating William Blount, 9-0, in five innings to capture the Gold championship.
“You always want to win, no matter what tournament you’re playing,” Lady Owls coach Jon Massey said. “But it’s special to win your own in front of our fans. A lot of these teams coming in here know we’ve been very successful in the past and we’re trying to get back to that point.”
Ooltewah, now 18-1 and riding a 16-game winning streak, made a huge statement, especially by beating William Blount twice and state-ranked Division II-A power King’s Academy, 4-0, in the Gold semifinals.
The Lady Owls also defeated William Blount, 3-2, in a non-pool contest and rocked Sequoyah, 11-0, to earn Pool A’s No.
spot in the Gold playoffs.
William Blount (14-4) was the only team in the tournament – that’s seven games – to score on the Lady Owls and did so in its last at-bat against Boseman in the first game between the two teams. The rest were stifling shutout efforts by freshman Kayla Boseman, senior Cameron Baltimore, sophomore Jadyn Raschke and junior Monica Thompson.
Boseman threw three games Saturday and recorded two- and three-hit shutouts against King’s Academy in the semifinals and the Lady Govs in the title game, respectively.
Baltimore had a three-inning no-hitter against Page and stopped Sequoyah with a two-hit shutout.
Raschke blanked LaVergne on two hits. Thompson fired a five-hit shutout at Bledsoe County.
“I had to throw strikes and let my defense work behind me,” Boseman said. “This is going to help me a lot. The teams in this tournament were pretty good hitting teams, especially, William Blount and King’s Academy.
“Coach Massey told me William Blount was a good team, a good hitting team, and my goal was to throw strikes and get people out.”
With stingy pitching a very big hurdle for opponents to clear, the Lady Owls also mashed a lot of opposition pitchers into submission. Ooltewah outhit its tournament foes, 60-19.
That was never more obvious than on Saturday.
Freshman third baseman Mabry Carpenter powered the team’s 35-hit attack on championship day by going 6-for-12 with four runs scored and eight RBIs – she piled up six in the win over Sequoyah with a two-run homer, a three-run blast and a groundout in a game that nailed down the Lady Owls’ No. 1 seed from Pool A in the Gold bracket semifinals.
“I’m just a freshman, but this feels pretty good,” Carpenter said. “I did OK in my first Ooltewah tournament, especially hitting in most games. No so much in the championship (she was 0-for-2 with a walk and scored on an illegal pitch by the Lady Govs’ starter Erin Hill).”
Boseman pitched in offensively, going 6-for-12 with five RBIs and five runs scored on the final day of action. And Allie Jones, who has signed with Lincoln Memorial University, was 5-for-10 with five RBIs and four runs scored.
Give those three sluggers a combined stat line and you get: 17-for 34 with 13 runs scored and 18 RBIs.
That caught William Blount coach Amana Leatherwood’s attention.
“Honestly, top to bottom, Ooltewah is one of the best teams we’ve seen this year,” she said. “Holy moly, that pitcher (Boseman) is a freshman. I would have picked us both to be in the championship game. I told them I hope to see them in the postseason because this is the caliber of teams that should be going to state.”
In the title game, the Lady Owls got to Hill for four second-inning runs, sending 10 batters to the plate. Summer Williams, who walked, scored on a wild pitch. Tiera Lemon and Jones added RBI singles and Lemon later scored on a bases-loaded walk to Shelby Sutton.
An inning later, Ooltewah put the game away.
Williams singled to start the inning and junior Bailey Kennedy struck out. Raschke’s sacrifice bunt moved courtesy runner Haley Morrow to second and Raschke was safe at first on an error by second baseman Miranda Clark when she missed stepping on the bag.
Boseman then ripped Hill’s first pitcher for a three-run homer, her second of the tourney, to push the Lady Owls’ lead to 7-0 over the Lady Govs. Lemon singled and with two outs Carpenter walked. Sutton’s hit to left scored Lemon and Carpenter moved to second.
Aubie Collake’s infield hit loaded the bases. Hill was then called for making an illegal pitch and Carpenter scored and Ooltewah led 9-0.
Boseman, admitting she was tiring after three tough outings, got two quick outs in the fifth before Kailey Dunn doubled to left. Boseman retired Hill on a bouncer back to end the game due to the nine-run lead after five innings.
“Our pitching all weekend was solid,” Massey said. “We have four pitchers that consistently throw strikes and I’m proud of all four of them.
“We still have to become more consistent with the bats. We’ll go a couple of innings looking like we have it figured out and then three or four and look like we don’t have it figured out at all. Right now, from one through four in the lineup, we’re doing a really good job.”
Ooltewah 4, King’s Academy 0: Boseman held the Lady Lions’ first six hitters to a combined 0-for14 while striking out 10 – she recorded two strikeouts in four different innings – and allowing harmless singles to Hayden Jenkins and Sara Morgan in the third and fifth innings.
Carpenter doubled and scored on Sutton’s fourth-inning single for the game’s first run.
Carpenter delivered a two-run single through the left side– she had two of Ooltewah’s four hits in the game – in a three-run fifth and Kennedy, who started the inning with a single to left, came later came home on a wild pitch.
Ooltewah 11, Sequoyah 0: The Lady Owls left no doubt they were going to reach the Gold bracket playoffs, with a spot in the semifinals the prize for a 14-hit assault on the Lady Chiefs.
Jones pushed across a run in the first with a sacrifice fly and Carpenter smacked a two-run homer to left-center field.
In the third, Jones belted a solo home run.
Carpenter smacked a three-run homer in the fourth, extending Ooltewah’s lead to 7-0.
An inning later, Williams reached on an error, Baltimore was safe on a fielder’s choice and Boseman singled to load the bases. Lemon drove in two runs with a single to left, Jones doubled and Lemon scored on Carpenter’s groundout to register her sixth RBI of the game.
“That’s my high,” she said. “I have a mindset to hit the ball as hard as I can and I’m in a groove. And that’s the first time I’ve hit two homers in a game.”
Baltimore followed up her three-inning no-hitter with a three-hit masterpiece.
Ooltewah 3, William Blount 2: In the team’s non-pool matchup, Jones got the ball rolling for Ooltewah with a two-out home run to center.
That was all the Lady Owls could muster over the first four innings.
In the fifth, Raschke reached on an infield single and Boseman, who bats in the No. 1 spot, whacked a two-run homer to left field.
“Kayla fits the bill as a leadoff batter,” Massey said. “But I knew we had to have someone hitting in the four-hole to protect Jones and Carpenter fits that bill.”
The Lady Govs put up two runs in the last of the fifth on Hill’s groundout and Kris Dunn’s two-out single to left. Boseman retired Ashlyn Cooper on a popup to end the game.
Rhea County also reached the Gold playoffs and beat Sequoyah, 6-2, before losing to William Blount, 7-4, in the semifinals.
LaVergne whipped Page, 13-1, for the Silver title.
LINESCORES
Gold Championship Game
William Blount 000 00 – 0 3 2
Ooltewah 045 0x – 9 10 0
Hill, Long (3) and Henry; Boseman and Williams.
Gold Semifinals
Ooltewah 000 130 – 4 4 0
King’s Academy 000 000 – 0 2 1
Boseman and Williams; Taylor, Webb (6) and Huffman.
Pool A
Sequoyah 000 00 – 0 2 0
Ooltewah 301 34 – 11 14 2
N. Williams, Roberts (5) and Bowers; Baltimore and Williams.
Non-Pool Game
Ooltewah 100 02 – 3 7 2
William Blount 000 02 – 2 5 0
Boseman and Forrester; Long and Henry.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Lady Owls pitcher Kayla Boseman won three of the team's four games Saturday, including a 9-0 decision over William Blount in the Ooltewah Classic softball championship game.
photo by Dennis Norwood