Soddy Daisy and Signal Mountain have had two of the best baseball teams in Chattanooga this spring and without a doubt, have been head and shoulders above anybody else in District 6-AAA.
These two teams will play their final regular-season game Tuesday night at Signal Mountain with the winner taking the district championship and earning the top seed for next week’s district tournament that will be played at Red Bank.
The Trojans were the host team on Monday as they entered play at Tom Higgins Field with an overall record of 25-4 and 8-0 in 6-AAA. The Eagles started play at 20-6 overall and 7-1 in district play, that only loss coming at Red Bank last week.
They are knotted in first place now after the Eagles got a strong performance from senior Barrett Anderson that resulted in a 5-0 victory.
These two teams have been pointing to this last series as both had cruised in the regular season up to this point. Signal Mountain coach Josh Gandy is just proud of Anderson and how he battled all game to pitch one of his best games of the season.
“That was a fun game,” Gandy began after a quick chat with his team following Monday’s game.
“I thought we played great defense and Barrett threw strikes as he battled on every pitch. Soddy Daisy has a great team and we really had to battle at the plate to get the runs we got.
“I’m sure that Ben Timblin wasn’t happy with his first three times up, but he made them pay with the big home run in the sixth. But we’re excited about tomorrow’s game and we’ll see what happens,” Gandy nodded.
Anderson is a hard-throwing righty who has been a clutch performer for the Eagles all spring. Monday’s game may have been his best of the season.
“I loved every second of this game as both teams were talking a lot of trash, but I just tried to stay consistent and to throw strikes. This may be my best performance so far,” the 18-year-old senior smiled.
Soddy Daisy coach Jim Higgins was quick and to the point in his post-game comments.
“All I’ll say is that we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s game,” he began.
“I thought that Sai Vickers did a great job pitching in relief, but we just didn’t take care of business at the plate. We came out here to win this game tonight and things just didn’t fall our way, but there are times when you just have to tip your cap the other way,” he nodded.
The Eagles scored single runs in the second and third innings before Timblin ripped his 12th homer past the scoreboard in left with two outs in the sixth to increase Signal’s lead to 5-0.
That was more than enough support for Anderson, who allowed six hits and two walks while striking out six in his complete-game performance. Soddy Daisy left seven runners on base, including two in the second, fourth and seventh innings, but were never able to get a clutch hit to score.
Blake Wolfard had three of Signal’s eight hits and scored the first run in the second when catcher Vance Wilburn singled with two outs.
Cash Keene walked with one out in the third and scored on a two-out single by Wolfard. Then in the sixth, Wolford led off with an infield single before getting forced at second on a grounder from Ty Harper. Bo Cooper singled to put two runners on, setting the stage for Timblin, who ripped a 2-2 pitch well past the fence in left for the Eagles last three runs.
A one-out walk to Troy James and a two-out single by Brayden Maynor put two runners on for the Trojans in the bottom of the seventh, but Anderson was more than up for the challenge as he got Jake Jackson on a fly to left to end the game.
While Wolfard had three hits for the Eagles, Maynor was the only Soddy Daisy player with two.
While Anderson was the winning pitcher, Carson Flint took the loss for the Trojans after allowing two runs on four hits in three innings. He also had four walks, two strikeouts and one hit batter before being replaced by Vickers to start the fourth.
Tuesday’s big game is set to begin at 7 p.m.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 011 003 0 – 5 8 0
SODDY DAISY 000 000 0 – 0 6 0
Anderson and Wilburn; Flint, Vickers (4) and James.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)