The Soddy Daisy Trojans are off to a great start in prep baseball as they won six straight games before losing to Bradley on Saturday.
They picked right back up where they left off before the loss on Monday night as they jumped on the Hixson Wildcats early and improved to 11-2 with the 9-3 victory.
The second game of this District 6-AAA series was supposed to be played on Tuesday night at Hixson, but because rain is heavy in the forecast, coaches moved that game to 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Losing pitcher Cooper Bailey helped himself with a solo homer in the first, but by the time the Wildcats scored again, the Trojans had tallied nine runs and were well on their way to victory.
Soddy Daisy coach Jim Higgins was just happy to get a big district win at home on a Monday.
“We got a good solid outing from starting pitcher Carson Flint and our 2-3-4 hitters all had two hits each, but the key was the fact we jumped on them early and got a big district win at home on a Monday night,” Higgins said before dragging the infield following the game.
“It probably wasn’t the performance that Carson wanted as his curve wasn’t working like it should, but he stayed in the hunt and competed with a lot of guts. We played seven games in six days last week and lost the last one, so it’s nice to get back on track today,” Higgins added.
Hixson coach Colton Green knows that his Wildcats blew a lot of opportunities at the plate as they left at least one runner in six of the seven innings while stranding 11 for the game, but he was quick to admit that it’s tough for his team to bounce back after the way Soddy Daisy jumped on them early.
“I thought Soddy Daisy did a nice job getting key hits deep in the count, but we gave up six runs early and that makes it tough to come back,” he said after a talk with his kids in shallow right field.
“The wind was tough as it made play in the outfield difficult, but defense wasn’t our problem tonight as we left a ton of runners on base and were never able to get a clutch hit,” he added.
While Bailey’s solo shot over the fence in right-center gave Hixson the early lead, it didn’t last long as Soddy Daisy batted around in the bottom of the first.
The first four Trojans all reached before Hixson got the first out and they scored four runs after getting four hits, a walk and a hit batter. Jake Jackson, who walked in each of his first two at-bats and scored both times, walked to start the Trojan first and advanced when A.J. Florio singled and Keith Scoggins got hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Cooper Poe drove in the first run with a single to right while Gaige Hardy drove in two with a single before Brayden Maynor made it 4-0 with another single to right.
Jackson got the Trojans rolling with a leadoff walk in the second and scored on a double by Florio, who was thrown out trying to steal third on the next pitch. Scoggins then made it 6-0 with a solo homer to left.
Poe had a run-scoring single in the fourth while the Trojans concluded their scoring with two more in the sixth. Florio walked with one out before Scoggins reached on an infield single. Both moved up a base on a wild pitch before Poe got his third run batted in for the game on a grounder to first. Troy James then singled plate Scoggins with the final run for Soddy Daisy.
Hixson scored twice in its final at bat, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Sam Lott reached on Soddy Daisy’s third infield error before Bailey singled up the middle. Chase Barnard walked to load the bases before Dallas Rucker got the easy RBI with another walk. Yeray Velazquez grounded to short to drive in the last run.
Soddy Daisy reliever Luke Camp then ended the game when he coaxed Riley Frazier into a grounder back to himself for the second out before getting the final out on a called third strike.
James had three hits to lead the Soddy Daisy offense while Florio, Scoggins and Poe all had two apiece. Bailey was the only Wildcat with two hits and he also scored twice.
Flint was the winning pitcher after allowing one run on three hits in five-plus innings. He walked only one, but that went to Rucker to lead off the sixth and the stocky righty was replaced at that point by Camp. Flint also had seven strikeouts and hit a pair.
Bailey took the loss after surrendering seven runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings. He also struck out six while walking four and hitting two.
While Soddy Daisy improves to 11-2, Hixson is now 7-5.
HIXSON 100 000 2 – 3 5 0
SODDY DAISY 420 102 x – 9 11 3
Bailey, Velazquez (4) and Lott; Flint, Camp (6) and James.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)