It’s been a tough week for the Soddy Daisy Lady Trojan softball team and it didn’t get any easier on Friday morning at Warner Park in the first game of their own Lady Trojan Invitational.
The Lady Trojans got beat 9-2 at GPS Tuesday afternoon before getting no-hit by the Ooltewah Owls in an 11-0 whipping Thursday in a key District 5-AAA contest.
And then they got to face the defending Class A state champion Meigs County on Field One Friday.
Granted, the Lady Trojans played much better than they have all week and even had an early 1-0 lead after the first inning.
The Lady Tigers finally tied it at 1-1 in the third before putting the game away with three runs in the fifth for a 4-1 victory.
Meigs suffered a tough 2-1 loss to defending Class AA state champ Christian Academy of Knoxville on Thursday night as that snapped a 13-game winning streak, but the Lady Tigers got back on track first thing Friday as they improved to 18-2 for the season.
“I felt like we hit the ball well today and were finally able to find a few holes,” said Meigs County coach Jeff Davis following the game.
“We hit it, we caught it and we got good pitching. We did everything well to beat a really good Soddy Daisy team. We got down early, but we stayed with it and finally got some big hits there at the end. The bottom of our order carried us in that game,” Davis added.
Soddy Daisy coach Travis Hale watched his team lose for the third straight game, but the first-year head coach liked the approach his team took as they played inspired softball the entire game.
“I’m proud of how we bounced back after the loss to Ooltewah last night,” he began.
“Defensively, we played great today. We’re still not hitting like we need to, but give Meigs County a lot of credit. They got timely hits when they needed them. This is some really good competition here this weekend, but we need a win in the worst way and I have the feeling we’ll get one soon,” he said, knowing his team had to turn around and play Sequatchie County in the next game Friday.
Ashley Rogers was the winning pitcher as she improved to 12-1 with Friday’s win. She only allowed four hits and walked none while striking out nine, boosting her season total to 154. She gave up the early run in the first, but pitched extremely well and retired the side in order in three of the final five innings.
Alexis Trimiar singled with two outs in the first and advanced to second on a passed ball. Cameren Swafford then singled to left as Trimiar scored easily for a 1-0 lead.
Aubrey Reed doubled for Meigs with one out in the first before Rogers singled and Madison Crabtree walked to load the bases, but Soddy Daisy pitcher Stephanie Blevins got a big strikeout and a grounder to first to leave the sacks full.
Reed singled in her second time to the plate and scored the tying run when Lindsey Ward ripped a two-out double to the gap in right center.
The Lady Tigers then loaded the bases again in the fourth when Taylor Odum singled, Arika Reed doubled and Reed walked, but Blevins induced Rogers into a grounder to second to end that threat.
Blevins wasn’t as fortunate in the fifth.
Crabtree flied to center for the first out before Ward, Jade Meadows and Alyson Crowder had consecutive singles with Crowder’s sending home Ward with the go-ahead run. Odum then popped to second for the second out before Reed drove in the final two with a double to left.
Feeling more than comfortable with a 4-1 lead, Rogers then retired the side in order as the Lady Tigers held on for the win.
Reed, the number nine hitter for Meigs, had three hits and two RBIs to lead the Lady Tigers while Reed and Ward both had two hits as well.
Trimiar and Swafford had those two singles for Soddy Daisy in the first while Courtney Daughtrey’s leadoff double in the second and Aminah Wood’s single in the fourth were the only other hits Rogers allowed.
Pool play continued most of Friday while the top two teams in each pool will start play in the Gold division Saturday morning and the bottom two will compete in the Silver division.
Championship games for both are tentatively set for 2:30 Saturday afternoon.
SODDY DAISY 100 000 – 1 4 0
MEIGS CO. 001 03x – 4 11 1
Blevins and Swafford; Rogers and Aubrey Reed.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)