Best of Three Winners Will Be Determined On Monday
by John Hunt
posted May 3, 2008
Soddy Daisy and Red Bank are the top two seeded teams in the District 6-AAA baseball tournament being played at Central this weekend.
Both were upset in Friday’s opening games with Central shocking Soddy Daisy and Ooltewah knocking off Red Bank.
Facing the possibility of elimination and the premature end to productive seasons, both of Friday’s losers came back with a bang on Saturday.
The best of three series is now even following Red Bank’s 14-5 win over the Owls and Soddy Daisy’s 15-2 landslide over the Purple Pounders.
The decisive third game will be played on Monday with Red Bank-Ooltewah at 4:30 and Soddy Daisy-Central to follow. Those winners will meet on Tuesday in one game to determine the tournament champion.
Both will advance to the Region 3-AAA tournament next week.
Red Bank 14, Ooltewah 5: The Lions haven’t been playing very well in recent days as Friday’s loss was their fifth straight.
Facing a do-or-die situation, they didn’t waste any time taking charge on Saturday.
With four of the first five hitters getting singles, the Lions scored two runs in their first at-bat and never looked back.
Kacy Bembry started things off with an infield hit before Hunter Adkins slapped a one-out single to left. Cory Emery and Jake Ledbetter followed with RBI-singles as Red Bank jumped on top 2-0 before Ooltewah came to bat.
The Owls countered with a single run in the first when Dakota Williams scored on a passed ball after leading off with a single.
Red Bank extended its lead to 6-1 with four runs in the fourth. Bembry reached on an error and scored on a double by Adkins.
Emery reached with a walk and both scored on a three-run homer past the flag pole in right by Brandon Ward.
The Owls kept chipping away and trimmed the gap with two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to make it 6-5.
Red Bank then answered with their biggest inning of the year, sending a dozen hitters to the plate and scoring eight runs.
Bembry, Craig Barker and Emery all had run-scoring singles while Ledbetter plated another with a double.
Cullen Clabo, who started it all with a single and scored the first run, had the big blow with a three-run homer to dead center.
Garrett Baugh and Williams both singled in the seventh, but the Owls didn’t do any further damage.
Alan Walden didn’t have his best day, although he was still good enough to earn the win. He allowed eight hits, four walks and five runs in five-plus innings while striking out three. Adkins finished for the Lions in relief.
Baugh was the loser after allowing the first six runs on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
Red Bank coach Bumper Reece didn’t enjoy the first part of the game, but he liked the way his kids finished up.
"I felt like throwing up at the beginning of the game," he said with a straight face.
“We’ve been in a slump recently, but I’m proud of the way they bounced back after Friday’s loss. We had a great batting practice before the game today and we told them we were trying to focus on singles. Our prom is tonight and I was worried about where our minds might be, but that turned out okay too.
“Alan didn’t pitch his best game, but he made some good pitches when he had to. He threw a lot of pitches and he got tired at the end, but we played good defense behind him and that was important. Those three double plays were huge. Now we get to play again on Monday for all the marbles,” he added, knowing that the season ends for the losers on Monday.
Ooltewah coach Jon Massey didn’t feel as good on Saturday as he did on Friday.
“I thought we were ready, but apparently we were not,” he said after watching his team fall to 16-18 overall.
“We got it handed to us pretty good just now. They hit it hard and they made the plays on defense. We didn’t. It’s as simple as that,” Massey expressed.
Red Bank ended up with 14 runs on 14 hits and just one error. Every Lion except Jeremy Bales had at least one hit, including Clabo with three. Bembry, Adkins, Emery and Ledbetter had two apiece.
The Owls finished with a dozen hits. Williams, Jamie Gawthrop, Baugh and Andrew Mayfield all had two while Zach Zarzour, Brady Reed, Zach Smith and Colby Cox had one apiece.
Soddy Daisy 15, Central 2: The Purple Pounders had new life and new purpose following Friday’s win, but those fortunes didn’t last very long on Saturday.
Starting pitcher Michael Chenkus retired the first six Trojans in order, but the wall came tumbling down in the innings following and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
Central even had the lead with a single run in the bottom of the second. Johnny Key ripped a one-out double off the fence in left-center and scored on a single by Ben Long.
The Trojans then unleashed their offense with four runs in the third, five in the fourth and six in the fifth.
Ryan Mullins had the big blow with a two-run single in the third while Jordan Gault and Justin Baier both got easy runs batted in with bases-loaded walks.
Baier and Steven Magnussen had the big blows in the fourth as both ripped two-run singles.
The Trojans then sent 12 batters to the plate in the sixth and scored their final six runs. Seven different players had hits and six different players had runs batted in.
Central scored one in the bottom of the fifth, but the game ended on a fly to left with the bases loaded.
The Trojans, now 21-12, finished with 15 runs on just nine hits. Dakota Price, Mullins and Baier all had two hits.
Central finished with two runs on six hits.
Zane Leffew was the winner as he pitched four innings and allowed one run on five hits. He walked four and struck out three.
Red Bank 200 400 8 – 14 14 1
Ooltewah 100 022 0 – 5 12 3
Walden, Adkins (6) and Barker; Baugh, Pepping (5), Smith (7), Campbell (7) and Cox.
Soddy Daisy 004 56 – 15 9 1
Central 010 01 – 2 6 3
Leffew, Hill (5) and Baier; Chenkus, Bryant (3), Farley (4), Oliver (5) and Clement.
(Email John Hunt at tnmoose2002@aol.com)
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