Ooltewah's Kayla Boseman, shown in a game from earlier this season, pitched and batted the Lady Owls to a 6-0 sectional win and a trip to the Class AAA state tournament over Lawrence County Friday evening.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo
Ooltewah is going back to Murfreesboro.
Kayla Boseman threw a no-hitter, struck out 14 and smacked a two-run homer in the seventh inning to power the Lady Owls past Lawrence County 6-0 in Class 3A sectional softball action Friday night.
“Everybody was excited and ready to go despite having to drive about three hours to play,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said.
“It’s like a new season now. To this point we’ve been good, but we have a lot of work to do to be ready for state.
“We played hard tonight and made plays defensively, but there weren’t that many plays to make really when Kayla strikes out 14 batters.”
The Lady Owls (32-8), shaking off losses to rival Soddy-Daisy in the District 5-3A and Region 3-3A championship games to win the most important game of the season thus far, finished third in the 2015 state tournament, losing to eventual runner-up Dickson County 6-5.
Ooltewah dropped a 4-2 decision to Stewarts Creek in last year’s sectional.
“It was do-or-die tonight,” Massey said. “The difference between tonight and Wednesday when we lost to Soddy-Daisy was like day and night. The girls were really focused and enthusiastic to play.”
Ooltewah will wait for the state tournament draw on Saturday to learn their first-round matchup.
With Boseman stifling the Lady Wildcats, the Lady Owls went to work offensively in the second inning. Mabry Carpenter walked and Cheyanne Sales bunted her over and reached safely on a throwing error, putting runners at second and third with none out.
Tyler Sullivan popped out to the pitcher, Ally Chernak popped out to the catcher, but Jady Raschke punched a RBI single up the middle for the game’s first run.
Tiera Lemon and Shelby Sutton each singled to start the third. Boseman doubled home one run, Carpenter singled to push another run across and Sullivan smacked a run-scoring double.
Sutton hit her second single up the middle with one out in the seventh. Boseman then crushed a two-run homer over the flag pole in center field to cap Ooltewah’s scoring.
LINESCORE
Ooltewah 013 000 2 – 6 9 1
Lawrence County 000 000 0 – 0 0 1
Boseman and Sales; Birdyshaw and Land.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)