Regan Rowan is a senior member of the Soddy Daisy softball team who was playing her final home game on Friday afternoon, so she wanted to be sure to have a memorable performance and to do what she could to help her team win so they could advance to next week’s Spring Fling state championship in Murfreesboro.
The Trojans didn’t have any trouble taking care of DeKalb County as they prevailed by a 13-1 margin in five innings as the Soddy Daisy girls collected 13 hits on the day.
Rowan was the only one who didn’t have a hit, but she did drive in a run with a groundout, but her job in the circle may have been more important and she did that very well as has been the case many times in recent years.
Rowan allowed just one run on four hits while walking just one and striking out six. And her job got a whole lot easier after the Lady Trojans sent a dozen hitters to the plate and totally took charge with seven runs.
“That was a high-pressure situation we were in today as it was a win or go home kind of game,” the 18-year-old Rowan, who will play college softball at Carson-Newman, expressed following the game.
“All of those early runs certainly took the pressure off. I wasn’t throwing as hard as I did yesterday, but I was hitting my spots. We talked about this being our last game on this field, but we tried to keep from getting too sad as this isn’t our last game. But I was proud of my teammates for helping make my job today a whole lot easier,” she concluded with a smile.
Soddy Daisy coach Kelsey Nunley-Moore spent most of the day watching the weather app on her phone and just hoping they could get the game in without further delay. She too was happy to see that early offensive explosion.
“We just need to keep playing like that where we get good pitching and good hitting. It was fun, but we just need to keep it going,” she said before talking to her girls who improved to 23-10-1 with Friday’s sectional win.
“We had a pretty specific game plan and they all followed through, but it was nice getting that early lead as they helped everything. I thought Regan pitched another good game as she just kept battling, but she had good command of her pitches that that was important,” the veteran coach added.
Neither team scored in the first inning, but the Soddy Daisy bats came to life in the second when they collected seven hits, including three doubles, three singles and a two-run homer by Brooke Raines, the only other Soddy Daisy senior besides Rowan.
Hannah Patterson led off with a single and was on board when Raines ripped a 2-2 pitch over the fence in dead center to put the Lady Trojans up, 2-0. Skylar Gooden had a run-scoring single while Abby Faires had a two-run double. Rowan’s grounder to short plated another run while Patterson drove in the last one on a double to right-center for her second hit of the inning.
Soddy Daisy put things away with three runs in the third before adding the final three in the fourth.
Lily Blaylock drove in one with a single while another scored on a wild pitch with the third coming on a double steal where Blaylock beat the throw home.
Then in the fourth, Emmy Noles had a two-run double before Gooden drove in the last run with a triple to left.
The Tigerettes avoided the shutout with a single run in the fourth. Bryna Pelham led off with a single and later scored on a two-out double by Bri Murphy.
While four different players had one hit each for DeKalb County, five Soddy Daisy players all finished with two hits, including Gooden, Faires, Patterson, Raines and Noles.
While Soddy Daisy has a few days to get ready for the next step that begins on Tuesday, the Tigerettes finish their season at 20-14.
DEKALB COUNTY 000 10 – 1 4 2
SODDY DAISY 073 3x – 13 13 1
Kilgore, Murphy (2) and Cowan; Rowan and Blue.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)