photo by M. A. Locke
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – It only seemed like Soddy-Daisy baseball coach Jared Hensley collected 200 wins Tuesday night at Cleveland’s Blue Raider Field. The Trojans actually won just a single game, but the fact it took three hours and 15 minutes to do so made for a late night celebration as the men of troy completed their third consecutive District 5-3A sweep with a 12-8 victory over a struggling Cleveland squad.
And yes, that celebration did include Hensley’s 200th victory as a head coach.
“I told these guys we’ve been in a lot of big games over the years.
A couple of region titles, some state tournament game wins and they’ve all been pretty special. And they’ve had nothing to do with me. I’ve been blessed to have so many good players from D-1 guys to draftees and it was the players who won those games, not me,” said Hensley, deflecting credit to no avail for the fans who toasted the fete afterwards.
Aside from the milestone victory, and the continued run of domination against district foes, there was very little to actually celebrate in the game which featured six pitchers, 290 pitches, 13 walks and four hit batsmen.
Nonetheless, it left the Trojans sitting pretty at 6-0 atop the league standings with Bradley Central and Walker Valley the closest in chase at 4-2 each.
Ooltewah (4-4), McMinn County (2-4), East Hamilton (2-6) and Cleveland (2-6) round out the rest of the pack in what is shaping up to be a great second half battle for the regular-season title.
“For us to win game one of these series is pretty awesome, but we’ve been fortunate thus far to get the sweeps. We’ve got some big ones coming up. The pitching staff has been just unbelievable so far for us, and even though we struggled some tonight, we were able to keep our approach. I’m proud of them for that,” said Hensley.
He also took some of the blame for the long play.
“We dumbed it up again for an inning tonight and it cost us five runs. We fell behind 3-0 in the first game, but tonight that one inning probably cost about an hour,” he laughed.
It was the Trojans who got off to a 3-0 lead Tuesday, taking advantage of three Blue Raider errors in the first inning and Spencer Keylon’s RBI single. Soddy-Daisy starter Seth Coffelt then proceeded to walk the first three Cleveland hitters in the first, but escaped with just one run allowed.
Clark Lockerby’s ground out scored a run with the bases loaded for the first out. The next hitter fouled out on a fly ball to the first baseman Luke Ellis down the right field line and when Hayden Tinsley tried to tag from third, Ellis throw to plate was true for an inning-ending double play.
Cleveland starter Alex Ventura used a sweeping right to left curve that had Soddy-Daisy on its heels over the next two innings, before two walks, an error and back-to-back two-run singles from Hayden Maynor and Jacob Jennings made it 7-1.
And just when the Trojans adjusted to the slurve, Blue Raider reliever Cole Johnson came in with a 12-6 curve ball to escape bases-loaded damage in the fifth to set up Cleveland’s big rally.
Cole Johnson got things started with, yep, a walk and advanced to third on two wild pitches.
Ventura then took one to helmet and pinch runner Robert Flowers got in a run down for an out on a steal attempt, but not before Johnson scored from third. Sam Wyrick followed with a two-out single and Kellye Cawood was beaned with a pitch and Tinsley walked to load them.
Ryan Lee then delivered a bases-clearing double and later scored on an errant throw to third from the catcher to even it 7-7.
“I was proud that we were able to come back and make it a ballgame. That showed a lot of fight to get back in it. Soddy-Daisy just does a lot of things well, and there weren’t any hits that were pop ups out there for them. They really had some nice approaches at the plate,” said Cleveland coach Preston Scoggins.
Those approaches were most noticeable in the final four innings when the Trojans produced nine of their 12 hits.
“They hit us with a lot of off speed stuff on Monday and we knew it would more of the same tonight because they have a lot of guys who can do it and do it well. We’ve struggled some with it, but we made some adjustments and kept the approach better tonight,” Hensley added.
Soddy-Daisy got the lead back in the sixth thanks to a leadoff double by Jennings. Ellis singled him home when he lined a two-out single to left on the same hanging curveball he struck out on in the inning before with a runner on third.
The Trojans put it away in the seventh with four runs on four hits, including RBI singles off the bats of Addison Roberts and Spencer Keylon. Josh Perez drove in a run with a sac fly and Aaron Couch another with a ground out.
For Cleveland it was the second consecutive series in the league they have been swept in and with ace pitcher Camden Sewell down with arm inflammation for the time being, Scoggins is looking for others to step up.
“He is a tough guy to lose for sure, but it’s the next guy up. It’s that way in all of sports. That’s why we carry 20-some odd guys on the team. I have faith that we have guys who will step up,” said Scoggins.
Scoggins missed the opening game at Soddy-Daisy, serving a one-game suspension for violating the TSSAA picth count rules and while he had no comment on it after the game he did say “it’s good to be back in the third base coaching box” after the absence.
The Trojans had five different players with two or more hits, including Jacobs who led them with three hits and two RBI. Maynor (two RBI), Roberts (RBI), Ellis (two RBI), Keylon (RBI) and Spencer Gore all had two hits.
Ryan Lee was the only Blue Raider with two hits to go with his three RBI. Clark Lockerby drove in two runs and Tinsley was 1-for-1 with three walks.
SODDY-DAISY 300 401 4 – 12 12 1
CLEVELAND 101 500 1 – 8 4 4
Coffelt, Brown (4), Keylon (6) and Howard; Ventura, Johnson (5), Blake (7) and Lee.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com or via Twitter @beachnut1134)