MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – After an exhilarating victory over Hendersonville to start the state tournament, Soddy-Daisy’s baseball high crumbled into ashes Wednesday with losses to Hardin Valley and Bartlett that sent the Trojans packing for home.
If the Hardin Valley loss was disappointing, the blowout against Bartlett could only be termed as ugly.
The Panthers shell-shocked the Trojans with nine runs in the first two innings and turned the game into a rout before finishing it off with a 12-3 win in the TSSAA Spring Fling Class AAA state baseball tournament
While Bartlett advances to play Hardin Valley on Thursday, Soddy-Daisy ends its season with a 24-13 record and a fifth-place finish, the same as the Trojans’ squad in 2011.
“This is always tough,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said after spending several minutes with his team after the game ended.
It’s never easy to see players leave. This team has come so far. Two years ago they won eight games in the regular season. Now we’re fifth in the state tournament, and they said they were going to do this.”
The Trojans’ seniors will move on and Andy Wright, the starting pitcher in the elimination game against Bartlett, looks forward to his baseball future at Middle Tennessee State.
That was not a whole lot of comfort to Wright in the dugout while he gathered his gear for the trip home while rain fell outside at Oakland High School.
“It’s very hard to end this way,” he said. “I didn’t have my best stuff. I was tired and sore, but I’m not using that as an excuse. Warming up I wanted the ball and I gave the best I could.”
Bartlett gave more.
The Panthers rocked Wright for eight runs and seven hits in 1 1/3 innings of work just little more than a week after he threw a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a Region 3-AAA semifinal win over Cookeville.
This one was over quickly.
The Panthers’ five-run first inning was highlighted by Barrett Taylor’s grand slam, a monster blast that cleared the wall with room to spare. He added a sacrifice fly to give him five RBIs in the game.
Bartlett hit Wright hard again in the second, adding four more runs to his rising ERA.
Logan Workman relieved Wright in the second and immediately gave up a sacrifice fly that pushed Bartlett’s lead to 9-0.
Soddy-Daisy got a run in the second on Justin Cooke’s RBI infield hit. Chandler Sulcer delivered a two-run double in the fifth that kept the Panthers from winning by the mercy rule.
Tre Carter had two of Soddy-Daisy’s five hits, both being singles.
The teams got a bit testy in the third and words were exchanged by the two sides, but nothing more happened. At game’s end, the teams came together on the mound, with rain falling, for a prayer.
Wright, several other players and Hensley were very emotional in the aftermath of a frustrating loss.
“I’m going to miss Soddy-Daisy a lot,” he said, “but I’m looking forward to doing good things at MTSU.”
Hardin Valley also jumped on the Trojans for five runs in the first two innings. Soddy-Daisy’s lone run came in the first inning, but the Trojans put up nothing more than zeroes after that.
Grant Cordell went 3-for-4 in the earlier game. Gavin Rogers had two doubles and Carter was 2-for-5.
Hunter Maynor worked the first five innings, striking out seven and walking six.
Vincent Gambuzza and Zach Sears combined for five hits and four RBIs.
LINESCORES
Bartlett 541 101 0 – 12 13 1
Soddy-Daisy 010 020 0 – 3 5 3
Bowlan, Kohl (2) and Miller; Wright, Workman (2), Kearney (3), Rivera (5) and Clift.
Soddy-Daisy 100 000 0 – 1 9 3
Hardin Valley 230 000 x – 6 9 0
Maynor, Kearney (6) and Clift; Turner, Valentine (4), Sears (6) and Gambuzza.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)