Mt. Juliet’s spring-break trek through Chattanooga hit a road block Tuesday afternoon at Jim Frost Stadium.
Defending Division II state softball champion GPS handed Class AAA Mt. Juliet a 6-0 defeat with four runs in the first inning and two in the fifth.
Mt. Juliet coach Kacey Pedigo decided to bring her team to Chattanooga this week for a three-game stretch against GPS, defending Class AAA state champion Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah, one of the favorites to win the 2008 Class AAA state crown.
Pedigo’s team has lost in the Class AAA state championship game the last two years to Soddy-Daisy and returns eight starters. In order to get better, Pedigo wanted to start off the 2008 season with her team coming to Chattanooga.
“You don’t have to go to Florida to find tough softball competition,’’ Pedigo said. “All you have to do is come to Chattanooga.’’
Mt. Juliet will play Soddy-Daisy at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Soddy Lake fields and then travel to Ooltewah for a game that is supposed to begin at 6:30 p.m.
“In order to get better, you have to play good competition,’’ Pedigo said. “GPS is loaded, chocked full of talent. We took our lumps today, but this will make us better.
“We’re not interested in going 70-1. Even if we’re around .500 and have played good competition, that will make us feel like we’re in a good position for the postseason.’’
GPS started fast against Mt. Juliet senior Shelby Morris, who signed with East Tennessee State University. The Bruisers scored four runs in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Kamri Chester, an RBI single by Amy Campbell and RBI doubles by Jackie Baird and CC Gordon.
“They have a really good pitcher and a really good team,’’ GPS coach Susan Crownover said. “It’s early for her (Morris), too. I told our players not to get too high or too low for this game.
“We had some timely hits, but we also had 11 strikeouts. We left the bat on our shoulders too many times, but that will happen early.’’
GPS added two runs in the fifth when Megan Givens led off with a single and Chester followed with a home run over the center-field fence.
Megan Wagner, who pitched GPS to its state title last year, fired a two-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk.
“Megan struggled in a couple of scrimmages, but she settled in today and never looked back,’’ Crownover said. “Mt. Juliet is a good team that will beat a lot of people this year.’’
Givens had two singles for the Bruisers and Chester had a single and home run. Baird added a double and single.
Morris gave up 10 hits, but struck out 11 for Mt. Juliet.
GPS starts its spring break this week and will not play until March 21 in the Soddy-Daisy Tournament.
LINESCORE
Mt. Juliet………………000 000 0 – 0 2 0
GPS…………………….400 020 x – 6 10 0
Morris and Irwin; Wagner and Baird, Campbell (6).
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)