Rhea County center-fielder Delaney Smith puts a glove up but can't stop a two-run home run by Ooltewah's Mabry Carpenter from clearing the fence in an eight-run third inning. Carpenter had two hits as the Lady Owls advanced to the Region 3-3A title game with an 11-0 victory at Jim Lovell Field.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Rhea County lost two of three games against Ooltewah during the season, two of those decisions coming in the Soddy-Daisy tournament.
In none of the three contests did the Lady Owls’ sophomore right-hander Kayla Boseman pitch and the Lady Golden Eagles averaged scoring seven runs.
On Monday, Boseman was in the circle.
And she handcuffed the Lady Eagles hitters.
Boseman threw a five-inning no-hitter and struck out 10, Mabry Carpenter’s two-run homer powered an eight-run third and Ooltewah blew out Rhea County, 11-0, Monday in the Region 3-3A tournament semifinals at Jim Lovell Field.
“We didn’t see (Boseman) in our three previous games, except for maybe one inning in relief,” Rhea County coach Leah Price said. “We had mentally prepared to face her today, but that’s hard to do.”
With the victory, the Lady Owls (40-5) will host the region title game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will face a very familiar foe – District 5-3A rival Soddy-Daisy. The Lady Trojans (27-10) beat District 6-3A champion Cookeville, 8-5.
It will be the sixth game between the Lady Owls and Lady Trojans this year, fourth in the postseason.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Ooltewah’s Shelby Sutton, who had singles in her first two at-bats, reached on an error and scored in the explosive third inning. “We’re playing one game at a time trying to get back to state like we did last year and win it all.”
Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah – regardless of the outcome on Wednesday – will move on to the sectional round. The winner stays at home and the loser travels, most likely to potent Siegel in Murfreesboro. Siegel is 44-6 and has won 21 straight games.
Boseman allowed four baserunners in the run-rule game played before a good crowd on a balmy evening at Ooltewah High School.
She hit opposing pitcher Abby Wall with one out in the second, but struck out the next two.
In the third, Rhea County (22-19) second baseman Kelsey Sherrill hit a bouncer back to Boseman, who knocked the ball down, but couldn’t make the play at first for an error. Amy Lewis reached on Shelby Sutton’s fielding error. Hailey Gavin hit into a fielder’s choice, Wall popped out to short and Boseman whiffed Hannah DeArman to end the inning.
Boseman then struck out the side in the fifth to give her four in a row in closing the game out. She fanned two in each of the first three innings. Boseman now has 187 strikeouts in 123 innings.
“I hadn’t had a shortened game in a while,” Boseman said. “It’s going to feel good to get home early.”
One of the Ooltewah keys going into the game was to control leadoff batter Delaney Smith, a slap-hitter with tremendous speed. Smith had been successful against the Lady Owls in the previous three games at the plate and on the bases.
“She probably had 10 stolen bases against us in those three games,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. “That was a big plus keeping her off the bases. Kayla was in command and had a little extra pop on her pitches. It was good to get her out of here in five innings.”
Batting just twice, Smith struck out in the first inning and hit a soft liner to Carpenter at third in the third.
“Our mind-set was to pitch to her,” Boseman (18-3) said. “We knew if she got on she’d try to steal on the first pitch and I told Marissa (Forrester, catcher) to come up throwing.”
Lower in the order, Boseman was overpowering, registering eight of her strikeouts against the last four batters in the order.
Rhea County was unable to get a single ball to the outfield in five innings.
Ooltewah took advantage of 12 hits and five Rhea County errors to take command early and then erase all doubt about the outcome with the explosive third inning.
Shelby Sutton and Boseman had back-to-back one-out singles in the first, but Rhea starter Abby Wall retired Collake and Carpenter on ground balls.
Wall didn’t escape the Ooltewah bats and inning later though.
Tyler Sullivan ripped a double into the left-field corner to start the second and Forrester singled to center. With one out Addy Keylon reached on an error that allowed Sullivan and Madalyn Mills, who was running for Forrester, to score the game’s first two runs.
With her second hit, Sutton drove in Keylon to cap a three-run inning.
“We came into the game ready mentally and physically,” Sutton said. “We were excited to play. We wanted to start really quick.”
In the game-changing third, Collake started off with a walk. Carpenter followed with the two-run homer run, her third of the season. Sullivan followed with her second single and Forrester walked. Bailey Kennedy grounded out with the runners moving to third and second. Keylon’s single scored Sullivan to push the Lady Owls’ lead to 6-0.
“We knew this was an all or nothing game,” Carpenter said. “We were excited to come through like we did; we were swinging the bats well and just kept on swinging.”
Keylon went to second on a passed ball and Tiera Lemon walked and stole second. Sutton reached on another Rhea error and two runs scored. Boseman singled. Collake’s RBI single pushed Sutton home with the sixth run and the final two crossed on the Lady Golden Eagles’ fifth error.
“We didn’t hit the ball and made some silly mistakes in the field,” Price said. “They took advantage of that. We let them keep adding runs and you can’t do that against a good team like Ooltewah.”
Boxscore
Rhea County 000 00 – 0 0 5
Ooltewah 038 0x – 11 10 2
Wall, Bennett (4) and DeArman; Boseman and Forrester.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Ooltewah right-hander Kayla Boseman fired a five-inning no-hitter and struck out 10 in an 11-0 rout of Rhea County on Wednesday in the Region 3-3A semifinals. The Lady Golden Eagles were unable to get a ball out of the infield against the hard-throwing Boseman.
photo by Dennis Norwood