Ooltewah tuned up for the District 5-3A softball tournament by winning three games in the two-day BSN Challenge in Maryville.
The Lady Owls (35-4) defeated Maryville, 2-0, on Saturday behind the three-hit pitching of Kayla Boseman and timely third-inning hitting for their third straight victory in the regular season ending tourney.
On Friday, Ooltewah knocked off Hardin Valley, 5-1, and Heritage, 2-1.
After rallying past Maryville, the Lady Owls trailed host Farragut, 1-0, but had runners at first and third with one out and Shelby Sutton batting and Boseman on deck when rain halted the action.
Farragut also won three games by beating Catholic, 10-2, Tazewell, 12-0, and Jefferson County, 8-0.
“Had we beaten Farragut or they beat us by fewer than four runs, we would have had to play another game,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. “We didn’t want to sit around for two hours, play on a bad field and risk someone getting hurt.”
With the weekend’s wins the Lady Owls stretched their winning streak to 14 games and have won 26 of their last 27. Ooltewah’s last loss was a 12-3 setback against Friendship Christian in the Ooltewah Invitational.
“We’re playing good, we’re playing hard and making plays on defense,” Massey said. “We have to start swinging the bats better. We’re going to see good pitching from here on out and we have to make contact and hit the ball hard.
“With our tournament coming up we have to just go play, play hard and hopefully good things will happen.”
With wins on Friday and Saturday, Boseman improved to 14-2 on the season.
The Lady Owls, who finished third in the 2015 TSSAA Class 3A state tournament, opened the tournament with the four-run victory against Hardin Valley. Boseman threw a three-hitter and Sutton went 2 for 3 with a triple and one run scored. She had a run-scoring single in a three-run third inning.
Jadyn Raschke and the Lady Owls trailed Heritage, 1-0, but rallied for two runs in the sixth inning to pull out the win on Raschke’s two-run double.
Mabry Carpenter and Tyler Sullivan each drew walks ahead of Raschke’s clutch game-winning hit to right-center field.
Boxscores
Saturday
Maryville 000 00 – 0 3 0
Ooltewah 002 0x – 2 4 0
Parker and Singleton; Boseman and Forrester.
Friday
Hardin Valley 000 10 – 1 4 1
Ooltewah 013 1x – 5 8 0
Chavis and McCord; Boseman and Forrester.
Ooltewah 000 002 – 2 5 0
Heritage 000 100 – 1 5 0
Raschke and Mills; Geary and Beasley.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)