Rogers, Carter Lead Soddy Daisy Past Ooltewah

Trojans Still Unbeaten In District 5-AAA Following 7-1 Win Monday

  • Monday, April 4, 2016
  • John Hunt
Soddy Daisy's Gavin Rogers delivers to the plate in a 7-1 win over District 5-AAA rival Ooltewah Monday evening at Tom Higgins Field. Rogers is now 4-0 on the season.
Soddy Daisy's Gavin Rogers delivers to the plate in a 7-1 win over District 5-AAA rival Ooltewah Monday evening at Tom Higgins Field. Rogers is now 4-0 on the season.
photo by M.A. Locke

There was nothing fancy about Soddy Daisy's 7-1 win over Ooltewah on Monday night at the victor's Tom Higgins Field, but the Trojans did a good job of taking care of the little details as they remained unbeaten in district play before a near-capacity crowd.

Soddy Daisy, improving to 13-2 overall and 7-0 in District 5-AAA, put a single run on the board in the first inning before adding two more in the third, fourth and sixth innings to win with ease as senior right-hander Gavin Rogers won for the fourth time without any losses.

Ironically, all seven of Soddy Daisy's runs were scored with two outs.

"I thought we did a good job overall and they hit a lot of balls hard right at people.  We caught the breaks tonight," said Soddy Daisy coach Jared Hensley following the game.

"Gavin did a tremendous job on the mound for us and we were able to string some key hits together, but nobody is better prepared than Ooltewah and I'm sure they'll be better tomorrow night at their place.  We'll be ready for another dogfight," Hensley added.

Rogers allowed a leadoff single to Mitch Duncan on the first pitch of the game before retiring the next 13 Owls.  During that time, his teammates scored five runs and the Trojans were well on their way to victory by the time catcher Andy Reed ripped a 1-2 pitch to right-center for Ooltewah's second hit in the fifth.

While a double play ended Ooltewah's threat in the fifth, Rogers got a key strikeout of London Elrod to end that inning after Jack Sullivan had walked an Caleb Collins got hit by a pitch.

The Owls finally broke through with a run in the seventh.

Jackson Malcolm led off with a single and eventually scored on a two-out double by Jordan Artine, but Rogers got a grounder to first from Sam Zettel to end the game.

"I had a pretty good game as all of my pitches were working and I was hitting my spots.  But on the times I missed those spots, they made me pay," said Rogers after the game ended.

Soddy Daisy finished the game with seven runs on 10 hits.

Tre Carter, Grant Cordell and Rogers all had two hits apiece to lead the Soddy Daisy offense.

Carter had a big two-run triple in the fourth while Rogers helped his own cause with a  two-run single in the sixth after driving in a third run with another single in the third.

Carter also scored twice, including the first run in the first.  He reached on a boot by the Ooltewah shortstop and scored on a two-out single to left by Cordell.

Rogers drove in Carter with a single in the third while Spencer Keylon's single allowed courtesy runner Jake Flippo to score.

Joshua Perez reached on a two-out walk in the fourth ahead of a single by Justin Cooke.  Both raced around to score on the triple to the gap in right-center by Carter.

The seventh was the only inning where Ooltewah had more than one hit.

Malcolm had the leadoff single and scored on Artine's double, but that was all the Owls got as they dropped to 8-10 overall and 0-5 in district play.

"We just need to play better and we have to have more than four hits to give ourselves a chance," said Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox following the game that was over in less than two hours.

"Give their pitcher a lot of credit as he did a great job of keeping us off balance.  We need to be more consistent at the plate as we weren't able to string anything together offensively.  Caleb Collins certainly pitched better than the linescore would indicate," the Ooltewah coach added.

Rogers was the winning pitcher after allowing the one run on four hits.  He finished the game with five strikeouts while walking two and hitting one.

The southpaw Collins suffered the loss after allowing all seven runs on nine hits.  He also had four strikeouts while walking three and hitting one.

These same two teams will meet again at Ooltewah Tuesday night with the first pitch slated for 7 p.m.

OOLTEWAH  000 000 1 -- 1 4 1

SODDY DAISY  102 202 x -- 7 10 0

Collins, Wolfe (6) and Reed; Rogers and Workman.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

Sports
Mocs Houk Named SoCon Golfer Of The Week
  • 3/27/2024

Chattanooga Mocs senior John Houk claimed this week’s Southern Conference Golfer of the Week honor with an impressive runner-up performance at the General Hackler Championships. The Athens, Tenn., ... more

UTC Homecoming Set For October 26
  • 3/27/2024

The Chattanooga Mocs completed spring drills prior to Spring Break and are now deep into strength and conditioning work ahead of the summer in preparation for the fall season. One highlight to ... more

Chapman's 5 RBIs Lead Vols To Run-Rule Win Over Tennessee Tech
  • 3/27/2024

A five-RBI game from Reese Chapman and impressive group effort from the pitching staff highlighted No. 5/5 Tennessee's 11-1 run-rule victory over in-state foe Tennessee Tech on Tuesday night ... more