Soddy-Daisy first baseman Gavin Rogers rounds third after hitting a third-inning grand slam in the Trojans' hard-earned 4-3 win over Ooltewah in the District 5-AAA baseball tournament on Saturday.
photo by Dennis Norwood
ATHENS, Tenn. – The formula for Soddy-Daisy’s 4-3 victory over Ooltewah on Saturday in the District 5-AAA baseball tournament at McMinn County High School was fairly simple.
Take Gavin Rogers’ clutch home run and hang on.
Rogers, the Trojans’ first baseman, crushed the first pitch – a fastball up and in – from the Owls’ Jackson Malcolm over the left-field fence for a third-inning grand slam and Soddy-Daisy used stout pitching from Andy Wright to hold Ooltewah at bay to reach the winner’s bracket final.
“They couldn’t pitch around me because the bases were loaded with no outs,” Rogers said. “It was a fastball up and in and I got it all. I didn’t know it was gone and watched it go out when I was running toward first.”
Soddy-Daisy (19-8), which lost to Bradley Central, 1-0, in last year’s title showdown, will play East Hamilton on Sunday at 4 p.m. for a berth in Tuesday’s tournament championship game.
The Hurricanes (17-11) rode the three-hit pitching of Nick Fahler to a 5-0 win over host McMinn County, which had pulled off two upsets to get a shot at second-seeded East Hamilton.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, Ooltewah (13-17) takes on McMinn County in an elimination game.
Ooltewah right-hander Jackson Malcolm had kept the Trojans, who hadn’t played in a week after gaining the top seed and spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
But Trojans center fielder Tre Carter, one of the team’s five players on the regular season All-District 5-AAA team, ripped a single up the middle to start the third.
Chandler Sulcer legged out an infield hit.
Dillon Clift, another all-district selection, was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Rogers followed with his soaring blast to left that produced the Trojans’ only runs off Malcolm.
“It crossed my mind later that if I hadn’t hit the homer, we might not have won the game,” said Rogers, whose only other home run came against Franklin County in the Trojans Classic. “Andy threw a great game, but our defense didn’t back him up very well. But, we’re moving on.”
Said Trojans coach Jared Hensley, “That homer speaks for itself. We score four runs in one inning and Gavin produced those runs with one hit.”
Soddy-Daisy managed just six hits and leadoff batter Tre Carter had a single and later scored in the third and doubled in the fourth.
That left much of the outcome up to Wright, a senior who has signed a baseball grant with Middle Tennessee State University.
The hard-throwing right-hander was dominant, striking out nine – he fanned the side in the first and fourth innings – and walking none.
The bottom of Ooltewah’s batting order gave Wright some problems when a couple of errors were thrown into the mix.
Vince Vantiegham had a one-out single in the third and courtesy runner Trevor Wiggs came around to score on one of four Soddy-Daisy errors.
In the sixth, London Elrod reached on an infield miscue and eventually scored on another misplay on a sacrifice bunt by Vantiegham. A wide throw at first allowed Elrod to score and Vantiegham wound up at second. Malcolm’s groundout produced the inning’s second run.
“Andy was dominant,” Hensley said, “and I’m proud of him. He put the team on his back and carried us all day. I told the guys Ooltewah is a comeback team and I knew we’d be hanging on for dear life.”
Back in the third, Ooltewah had a run wiped off the scoreboard when Soddy-Daisy successfully appealed that Jake Sullivan left early on a fly ball hit by Hayden Bradley.
“Wright is a tough pitcher for us to matchup with and try to string together some hits and score runs that way,” Owls coach Brian Hitchcox said. “We tried to put some pressure on Soddy-Daisy, but just came up short.”
The Owls, who were 7-15 at one point in the season, hung with the Trojans primarily because Malcolm controlled the Trojans’ bats in all but one inning.
“Jackson is a super utility player,” Hitchcox said. “He plays a lot of positions and pitches. He leads our team in appearances, a lot coming in middle relief. And I thought he was our best matchup against Soddy-Daisy. When we played them earlier, they knocked out our starter early and Jackson shut them down.
“I can’t ask him to pitch any better. We have to give Gavin credit. He’s not a hitter that swings at a lot of first pitches. We had a good pitch called and he guessed right and hit it out.”
The Owls had two base runners in the seventh, but Wright induced Bradley into a game-ending groundout.
Hitchcox said he’s going to be a big Soddy-Daisy fan on Sunday.
If the Trojans fall to the Hurricanes, the Owls will have to beat McMinn County, Soddy-Daisy and East Hamilton twice to earn the district’s second spot in the Region 3-AAA tourney. The Trojans sewed up one spot with their No. 1 seed.
Should the Trojans win, there are fewer land mines on the way to the district title game.
“Nobody expected us to be where we are right now,” Hitchcox said. “This is the youngest team we’ve ever had, but we were hurt more than most teams with no preseason games and a lot of rainouts. We’re playing a lot better right now.”
East Hamilton 5, McMinn County 0: Fahler was primarily a catcher in 2014, but wanted to pitch as well. He worked hard to earn a shot at mound time and it has paid off this season.
“He made himself a pitcher,” Hurricanes coach Steve Garland said. “He made it where we coaches had no choice but to make him one of our guys on the mound. That’s all on Nick. He was a catcher who wanted to pitch.”
Fahler, a Carson-Newman signee, gave up a single to Hayden Fesmire in the fourth, a two-out hit to Corey Edgeman in the sixth and Fesmire’s smash-single back to the mound in the seventh that he deflected toward second, but had no chance to make a play at first.
Fahler struck out 10 and needed just 80 pitches to register his second complete game of the season. The first was against Ooltewah.
“I felt good out there,” Fahler said. “As I got further into the game I started settling down and attacking the (strike) zone. It was a relief to get the early three-run lead. In that situation, I could make a mistake and not feel as much pressure.”
In the Hurricanes’ first, Matt Watters reached on an error and Tanner Cox doubled him to third. Josh Aslinger reached on another error and Watters scored. Nick Woods and Fahler were both hit by pitches, the second producing a 2-0 lead. Garrett Owen had a run-scoring single to left to extend the advantage to 3-0.
Fahler was hit by a pitch again in the fourth. Courtesy runner Jeffrey Coleman stole second, moved to third on a groundout and came home Hunter Smith’s groundout. In the sixth, Fahler walked and Coleman later scored on Smith’s RBI single to center field.
Cox went 3-for-3, with the double.
Note: Both games were played in an identical 1-hour, 37-minutes.
LINESCORES
Ooltewah 001 020 0 – 1 4 2
Soddy-Daisy 004 000 x – 4 6 4
Malcolm and Vantiegham; Wright and Clift.
McMinn County 000 000 0 – 0 3 2
East Hamilton 300 101 x – 5 5 0
Curtis and Fesmire; Fahler and Owen.
Sunday Schedule
McMinn County vs. Ooltewah, 1 p.m.
East Hamilton vs. Soddy-Daisy, 4 p.m.
All-District 5-AAA Team
(Regular Season)
Soddy-Daisy – Dillon Clift, Andy Wright, Hunter Maynor, Tre Carter, Gavin Rogers.
East Hamilton -- Nick Fahler, Nick Woods, Josh Aslinger, Kyle Cox, Hunter Smith.
Ooltewah – Caleb Collins, Hayden Bradley.
Walker Valley – Tucker Mendenhall, Elijah Haynie, Zach Wilcox.
Bradley Central – Chandler Hamilton, Tyler Carpenter, Austin Calfee, Gunnar Norwood.
Cleveland – Jay McIntire, Hunter Oliver.
McMinn County – Nominations not submitted.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)
A big part of the Trojan's win went to pitcher Andy Wright. Wright, a senior, struck nine, including fanning the side in the first and fourth innings. He issued zero walks in his seven innings of work.
photo by Dennis Norwood