Carter Powers Trojans Past Owls, 11-3, In 5-3A Baseball

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Soddy-Daisy center fielder Tre Carter finally showed off his SEC-caliber swing Saturday afternoon in the District 5-3A baseball tournament at Cleveland High School.

Carter, who has signed to play college baseball at Tennessee, belted home runs in consecutive at-bats, Soddy-Daisy used a six-run second inning to put mistake-prone Ooltewah in a hole and went on to beat the Owls, 11-3, and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

Earlier, eighth-ranked and pre-tournament favorite Bradley Central scored nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings to break open a 2-1 game, Brandon Thompson fired a one-hitter and the Bears eventually won, 11-1, in a five-inning mercy-rule game.

The Bears also lead that series, 1-0.

Game 2 of the series’ will be played on Sunday at Cleveland High School. The Bears and Hurricanes play at 2 p.m. and the Trojans (26-5), who have won 12 in a row, and Owls (21-13) clash again at 5 p.m.

If Saturday’s winners pull off the sweep on Sunday, the tournament championship game will be played on Monday at 7 p.m.

If one or two Game 3s are necessary, that action would take place Monday and the title game moves to Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“I still don’t think the pressure is on us,” Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox said. “(Soddy-Daisy) was supposed to win the regular season and be the best team since the 1927 Yankees or whatever. We’re going to prepare to play well, give it our best shot and see what the scoreboard says at the end of the day.”

Neither team turned in brilliant performances on Saturday.

The Owls committed five errors; Soddy-Daisy had three.

Ooltewah used five pitchers, three in the Trojans’ big second. In addition to Carter’s two-run blast, Joshua Perez had run-scoring double; Cale Morgan added a sacrifice fly; Justin Cooke’s groundout pushed a run across; and another came home on a throwing error.

“Both teams played a little bit flat at times,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said. “Both teams made mistakes. We were fortunate enough to capitalize on those mistakes a little more than they did.

“We have to do some little things better on Sunday.”

The left-handed swinging Carter did several things well at the plate.

He smoked a two-run homer in the explosive second inning and added a solo blast to right-center in the third when Ooltewah committed three of its five errors.

With two out I the third, Carter struck again, the time belting a solo blast over the right-center field wall. He walked in the fifth and scored from first on Gavin Rogers’ hit to left field. Cooke, who walked, also scored on the play.

Carter and Rogers combined to go 3 for 6 with six RBIs and four runs scored.

Carter was a happy camper at game’s end.

“I’ve actually been a little off with my swing for quite a while,” he said.

What needed tweaking?

“Honestly, we’ll find Sunday if I’ve got it figured out,” Carter said. “On my first at-bat, I was a little passive. On the second, I had seen a couple of pitchers and decided to swing harder and it ended up going out.”

It was much the same story with the third-inning solo shot.

That marked the third time this season Carter had two home runs in a single game. He also did it against Ooltewah during the regular season and also Rhea County.

Carter now has 11 homers on the season.

“I wish I could have seen him when he’s ‘on’,” Hensley said, “because I didn’t know that him hitting over .500 with 11 home runs and eight triples is ‘off.’ He’s actually tough on himself and that’s a little of his maturity coming through in terms of him still trying to figure out a swing.”

Rogers worked six innings, gave up two first-inning runs and one in the fourth to pick up the win. Two of the three runs were unearned. He struck out seven and walked two and hit a batter.

Dylan Perry came on in relief to start the seventh. Leadoff batter Caleb Collins reached on an error and went to second on a wild pitch, but Perry retired Jackson Malcolm on a fly ball and struck out Andy Reed before walking London Elrod. Trevor Riggs reached on another error and Jordan Artime popped out to end the game.

“I think winning the first game in a series, especially a three-game series, is big because the other team’s back is against the wall,” Hensley said.

Said Carter, an All-District outfielder, “It feels good and I just hope we bring it again (Sunday).”

Bradley Central 11, East Hamilton 1: The Bears (24-6), who romped through regular season league play by winning 12 straight games without a loss, also took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three series with the Hurricanes (20-15).

Thompson (8-0) worked five innings and recorded four strikeouts while picking up the win. He helped his own cause by going 2 for 3, scoring once and driving in two runs.

Nick Woods stroke a RBI double with one out in the fourth for the Hurricanes’ only hit off Thompson.

“I don’t think Brandon was the sharpest he’s been this year because he got deep in the count and walked a few,” Bears coach Travis Adams said. “We hadn’t played since Tuesday, but we scored two runs early. My concern was not who we were playing, but my guys.

“We practiced, but you can’t simulate the intensity and nerves of a real game. It was good to get this first one out of the way.”

Adams will likely come back with Gunnar Norwood, who is also unbeaten this season, in Game 2 and that’s has been the Bears’ advantage all year long.

Thompson and Norwood were voted the All-District Co-Players of the Year.

“We’ve got two good pitchers and you need to win a three-game series,” said Adams, the district’s Coach of the Year. “We’ve already got a spot in the region tournament, but the real prize out there for us is to host a region game.”

Thompson went 2 for 3 with a run scored and two RBIs while Tyler Carpenter was 2 for 3 with two runs scored and one RBI. Cason Still had two hits in four at-bats, scored twice and drove in a run.

The Bears scored three times in the fourth inning and six in the fifth to end the game.

Kylar Lynn and Thompson each had RBI hits; Hunter James added a sacrifice fly and Jake Presley doubled in the two runs.

“It was 2-1 in the fourth and Woods doubled in a run and I felt like we were right in the game,” East Hamilton coach Steve Garland said. “We had a game after three and a half innings, but unfortunately you’ve got to play seven innings. Bradley answered in the fourth and fifth innings.

“We’ve got to bounce back (Sunday) and I’ve got confidence that my guys can do that. We’ll be ready and I hope we can tie the series.

Boxscores

Ooltewah                           100 100 0 – 2 7 5

Soddy-Daisy                      161 030 x – 11 7 3

Wiggs, Walls (2), Wolfe (2), Spurgeon (5), Mahoney (6) and Reed; Rogers, Perry (7) and Workman.

East Hamilton                  000 10 – 1 1 0

Bradley Central               200 36 – 11 10 0

WP – Thompson (8-0); DeValle.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)