Mitch Duncan, a Lee University signee, was a dual threat Sunday in Ooltewah's 13-3 win over Soddy-Daisy in the District 5-3A baseball tournament. Duncan threw a four-hitter, striking out seven, and went 3 for and scored twice, helping the Owls force a Game 3 Monday in the best-of-three series.
photo by Dennis Norwood
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Ooltewah flipped the script on Soddy-Daisy.
A day earlier, the Trojans outhit the Owls 10-1 and Tre Carter slammed two home runs in an 11-1 victory in the opener of a best-of-three series in the District 5-3A baseball tournament at Cleveland High School.
On a glorious, sun-splashed Sunday, Ooltewah hit Soddy-Daisy pitching like a boxer pounding a punching bag and posted a convincing 13-3, five-inning victory that leveled the series at 1-1.
“That’s the story of our season,” Owls coach Brian Hitchcox said. “We’re young and have been inconsistent. (Saturday) our pitching and defense weren’t up to par, but today we did a lot better at that, and we came up with some big hits.
“I’ll take and I’ll take it (Monday), too.”
The two teams will settle the deadlock on Monday at 7 p.m. in the series finale, with the winner advancing to the tournament title game on Tuesday – again at 7 p.m. – where the regular-season champion Bradley Central Bears (25-6) await.
Coach Travis Adams’ Bears clipped East Hamilton, 4-3, to sweep that series with the Hurricanes (20-16). The Bears swept all six opposing district foes in the regular season en route to a 12-0 league record.
Ooltewah (22-13) came out swinging and had 16 hits when it was over after being held to seven in the series opener 24 hours earlier. The Owls battered starter Colin Kearney for nine hits over three innings and reliever Jake Morrow for seven more over the final two.
“It was a 100 percent flip from (Saturday),” said coach Jared Hensley, whose club is now (26-6).
The first three batters in the Owls’ order – Mitch Duncan, Jake Sullivan and Caleb Collins – plus No. 5 hitter Andy Reed collectively went 12 for 15 with eight runs scored and nine RBIs.
Duncan, a Lee University signee, went 3 for 4 and scored twice.
Sullivan was 3 for 3, scored three runs and drove in two.
Collins had a 3-for-4 effort, scored twice and had four RBIs.
Reed went 3 for 4 with a run scored and three RBIs.
It was more than Soddy-Daisy could handle, but there’s one more game to settle the issue of which team gets a title-game shot against Bradley Central.
“At the end of the day, I thought Ooltewah wanted this game more than we did,” Hensley said. “That’s my fault. We were a little flat. They made things happen and we didn’t.”
From the get-go.
The Owls scored three runs in the first inning, one more than they did in the entire game Saturday.
Collins had a RBI double and Jordan Artime’s double drove in two more runs.
Ooltewah pushed the lead to 6-0 when Collins drove a two-run single up the middle and Reed added a RBI single to center.
After Carter’s third homer in two days, this one a solo shot in the third to virtually the same area near the outfield scoreboard, giving him 12 on the season, the Owls answered with Sullivan’s two-run single in the bottom half of the inning.
London Elrod had a RBI single in the fourth.
In the fifth, Collins drove in his fourth run with a sharp single to right. Reed added a two-out, two-run single and he wound up at third on Joshua Perez’s fielding error in right field. Reed scored on a wild pitch that ended the game due to the TSSAA 10-run mercy rule.
“We’ve got a lot of positives to take into Monday’s game,” Duncan said. “We’re going to be ready and give Soddy-Daisy a run for it.”
Duncan was also a tough customer when it counted the most on the mound, throwing a four-hitter at the Trojans. He struck out seven, walked four and hit three batters.
It wasn’t the sharpest Duncan has been this season, but it was a dramatically different effort from Saturday when the Owls needed five hurlers to slow the Trojans’ offensive express.
“I didn’t feel any pressure, but wanted to pitch to win and trust my defense,” Duncan said. “The best thing I had going was probably the location on my fastball. I was able to relax when we started breaking the game open.”
It was the first time Duncan had been on the mound since the Owls beat East Hamilton, 10-3, on April 26.
Ironically, Hensley thought the loss, which snapped a 12-game winning streak, could help the Trojans in the third game of the series.
“Kearney has been our guy all year long in big games and he’s a three-year starter, so that was a no-brainer in deciding to put him out there,” Hensley said. “We made mistakes behind him, but we’ll have a bunch of (pitchers) ready to go Monday. Sometimes it’s good to take a notch back.
“The 1927 Yankees lost 44 games and they were pretty good.”
Bradley Central 4, East Hamilton 3: Bears right-hander Jacob Moses (4-2), a weekend starter who was starting his sixth game of the season, scattered five hits in his most important win of his career.
Moses overcame a rocky start and gave the Bears six strong innings in the most meaningful outing of his career.
“Definitely, the first inning wasn’t ideal, but as the innings progressed and I started pounding the strike zone my confidence really grew, especially with my guys making defensive plays behind me. I give all the credit in the world to our defense.”
East Hamilton scored twice in the first with Garett Stone’s sacrifice fly and Matt Watters, the Hurricanes’ pitcher, added a RBI single to center.
After Watters’ hit, Moses retired eight in a row before hitting Watters with one out in the fourth. Moses retired the Hurricanes in the fifth and gave up a run on Watters’ single to center in the sixth.
The fourth and sixth were the only innings in which Moses allowed hits.
“Some aspects in this game were better than my other starts, but some were worse,” said Moses, who had thrown only 26.2 innings this season and has a 1.58 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 11 walks. “I gave up a few hits, but I thought it was definitely up to my standard of pitching.
“In this situation, of course, it’s my most meaningful win. I had to help the team get to the championship game and that’s what it’s all about.”
Bradley’s Charlie Hammonds came on to pitch the seventh and got the Hurricanes 1-2-3 to pick up his school-record fourth save.
“I’m honored to get the record,” said Hammonds, a senior. “This win means a lot. We came into the season wanting to do some big things and we’ve put ourselves in a great position to do so. I think we can make a pretty good (postseason) run for our last time around.”
Adams is happy for Moses, considering where he’s come from as a freshman.
“I couldn’t be more proud of his effort,” Adams said. “He’s a senior, but hasn’t played a lot. As a freshman I don’t know if he had ever made a team before. He’s a left-hander and I’ve just kept him around.
“He had a rough first inning, but we got him calmed down and he did his job. We played defense behind him and scored some runs.”
It was no surprise to Hurricanes coach Steve Garland that Moses got the start. One of two staff aces, Brandon Thompson, who is 8-0, pitched Saturday. Norwood (7-0) is the other stalwart and the two shared District 5-3A Co-Player of the Year honors (Adams was the coach of the year).
“We felt like they would save Norwood for the “if necessary” game or the championship game,” Hurricanes coach Steve Garland said. “I thought that was a smart decision by Bradley. I didn’t know anything about him. We scored two runs early and thought we’d do well because he was missing his spots and working behind in the count.
“But then he settled down and locked in with his curveball and did what he needed to do.”
Bradley took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cason Still reached on the first of four Hurricanes errors and came home on Dylan Standifer’s two-out RBI single.
The decisive runs came across in the third.
Still singled and raced to third on a misplay on the ball in right field. He scored on a wild pitch.
With two out Standifer walked, moved to second on a wild pitch and Kylar Lynn drew a walk. Thompson, who came into the weekend with a team-leading batting average of .488, reached on an error. Jeremiah Sims slapped a two-run single to right field.
After that Bradley had five baserunners, three of which reached third base, but Watters kept them from scoring.
Watters yielded just five hits and struck out five in a solid performance.
“Matt has been so good the last five or six weeks,” Garland said. “He wanted the ball today and darn near begged for it. He wanted no part of coming out of the game either.”
Boxscores
Bradley Central 103 000 0 – 4 4 0
East Hamilton 200 001 0 – 3 5 4
Jones, Hammonds (7) and Lynn; Watters and Owen.
Soddy-Daisy 001 20 – 3 4 1
Ooltewah 332 14 – 13 16 0
Kearney, Morrow (4) and Workman; Duncan and Reed.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Ooltewah center fielder Jake Sullivan didn't have a defensive putout but he gave Soddy-Daisy headaches at the plate on Sunday. Sullivan went 3 for 3, scored three runs and added two RBIs in the Owls' 13-3 victory over Soddy-Daisy to stay alive in the District 5-3A baseball tournament at Cleveland High.
photo by Dennis Norwood