Soddy-Daisy jumped on Mt. Juliet’s sophomore pitching phenom Ethan Smith for five runs in the first two innings Friday night and went on to beat the Bears, 6-3, in the Trojan Classic at Tom Higgins Field.
The Trojans (23-5) scored twice in the first and added three runs in the second against Smith, a Vanderbilt commitment. Soddy-Daisy had seven hits in the first two frames and wound up with nine off the hard-throwing right-hander, ranked among the state’s top five prospects for 2018.
“They came out swinging and I knew they would,” Mt. Juliet coach Mark Purvis said of the Trojans. “They always swing the bat well. They got on top of us early and Ethan settled down and pitched well the rest of the way.”
Justin Cooke, Tre Carter and Gavin Rogers had successive singles in the first inning to set the game tempo for Soddy-Daisy, which has won four games in a row and six of seven.
Cooke finished with three hits and he scored three times. Carter collected two hits and stole home with the second run in the first inning. Cale Morgan had two of Soddy-Daisy’s 11 hits, 10 of which came off Smith.
Smith finished with four strikeouts and two walks.
“I was really thrilled with our offensive approach tonight,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said. “That’s kind of what we do; it’s no secret. Their guy (Smith) was really good and they’re a good team. It was just a great job by our guys swinging the bats and really being aggressive by making every pitch count there early.”
Soddy-Daisy sluggers Grant Cordell and Rogers made an offensive impact as well.
Cordell hit into two double plays, but his two-run double highlighted the three-run second inning and produced what turned out to be the winning runs. Carter’s RBI single to left pushed Cooke home with the first run in the inning.
Rogers’ fielder’s choice in the sixth accounted for the Trojans’ final run.
In the first, Cooke eventually scored when Cordell hit into a double play and Carter then stole home for the second run.
After the second inning, Smith bowed his back. He retired the Trojans in order in the third. Cooke walked to lead off the fourth, but Smith got Carter on a groundout, Rogers flied out to right and Cordell bounced out to first.
“Those two guys at the top of the order have done a good job all year,” Hensley said. “Cooke has gotten on a base a ton and his on-base percentage is through the roof; plus, he’s been hitting a lot better lately. Tre coming up behind him causes a problem and I’ve the big boys (Rogers and Cordell) following them.
“The speed isn’t there after Tre in the lineup, but Gavin and Grant have done a great job pushing runs across the whole year. Every run is huge when you’re playing a team like Mt. Juliet, and we got a run when Grant hit into the double play and two more when he doubled to the opposite field and that was a great job of hitting.”
Smith fanned Spencer Keylon to start the fifth, but Morgan singled to left field and Chandler Sulcer singled up the middle. Both runners advanced a base when Mt. Juliet catcher Brayden Osborne tried to pick Sulcer off at first with the throw rolling into right field.
Smith struck out Logan Workman and Joshua Perez popped out to shortstop.
Cooke greeted Bears reliever John Dowless with a double leading off the Trojans’ sixth. Cooke stole third and scored when Rogers grounded to short and Aaron Brown’s throw to the plate was high and late.
Cordell, who plays tackle on the Trojans’ football team, then hit into his second play to end the inning.
Soddy-Daisy right-hander Jake Flippo battled the Bears (19-8) for five innings, giving up single runs in the second and fourth innings and escaped a jam in the fifth.
Mt. Juliet has two other big-time college prospects in addition to Smith.
Shortstop Aaron Brown and third baseman Sean Hunley, both juniors, have made verbal commitments to Mississippi State and Tennessee, respectively.
Flippo held Brown and Hunley to a combined 2 for 6 and one run scored.
Hunley singled in the sixth and eventually scored on second baseman Morgan’s second error of the inning. Brown singled with two out in the same inning, but Cade Hoppe flied out to left, stranding two runners.
“We had our chances to scratch back and we did a little,” Purvis said. “But we just couldn’t get the big hit we needed. We were able to do that in our first game, but not against Soddy-Daisy.”
Mt. Juliet trailed Sequoyah, 5-1, after four and scored seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull out an 8-5 victory prior to taking on the Trojans.
Dylan Perry relieved Flippo to start the sixth. The Bears scored on unearned run when Morgan committed two errors in the sixth.
Perry walked Trey Pruitt and hit Hunley – Flippo plunked him in the fourth – with two out and Osborne flied out to right to end the game.
“We beat a well-coached team tonight and as well as we played we made a lot of physical and mental mistakes for my taste. We’ve got two weeks before the district tournament starts and we’re going to take care of that and be ready to do.”
Boxscore
Mt. Juliet 010 101 0 – 3 6 2
Soddy-Daisy 230 001 x – 6 11 5
Smith, Dowless (6) and Osborne; Flippo, Perry (6) and Workman.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)