It’s probably a pretty safe bet to say that May is Kelli Smith’s favorite month of the year. After all, that’s when the biggest tournaments are played and that’s when her Baylor girls play their best softball.
As a veteran coach for the Baylor Lady Red Raiders, this is the time when Smith’s teams really shine as evidenced by nine straight Division II-Class AA state titles and 12 of the past 13.
Baylor rarely loses in May and the month started out right on Thursday when Smith’s Lady Raiders clinched first place in the region with an 8-4 victory over Chattanooga Christian, the second time in three days that Baylor has prevailed in this intense rivalry.
Thursday’s game wasn’t nearly as exciting or nerve-racking and it only took seven innings to complete instead of nine. And while Tuesday’s game came down to the final stretch where both teams had chances to win, that wasn’t the case in this latest match as Baylor scored at least one run in five of the first six innings to settle the issue early.
“It seems like everything went our way today as Rylee Jasper did a great job keeping them off-balanced with her pitching, we got a bunch of clutch hits, had some timely execution on bunts and played solid defense all the way around,” Smith expressed after her team had improved to 19-6-1 overall with their sixth straight win.
“We were able to score in five of the six innings we batted and Chloe Cunningham did a great job as our leadoff hitter. And I was really proud of Adison Wallington, who entered the game in a tough situation in the sixth. But this just secured another region title for us and we’ll be at home until the Spring Fling begins in Murfreesboro,” she added.
CCS coach Steven Rogers felt like his team was ready to play at home on Tuesday, but that just wasn’t the case two days later.
“We just came out really flat and seemingly unprepared. We acted like we didn’t want to play as the bus ride over here was really quiet,” he said after this team fell to 15-11 overall and 3-2 in region play with their third straight loss.
“I thought we played more like ourselves at the end, but you can’t wait against a great team like Baylor. We have a great team and have 19 young ladies who can play softball, but we’ll just put this one behind us and move forward,” he added, knowing his team will face Knoxville Webb on Friday in a doubleheader, weather permitting.
Jasper got the win for Baylor as she went 5.1 innings before being replaced by Wallington in the sixth.
Nyla Halfacre led off with a single before Addi Lewis slugged the first pitch over the fence in center for two runs. Jasper got Alli Matthews on a pop to third for the first out before Mary Katherine Flowers doubled down the line in left.
Wallington then put the fire out with two straight strikeouts.
Catcher Xahara Willis, who reached base nine straight times with six hits in the two games, got one of those runs back with a solo homer to lead off the sixth as Wallington came out for the last inning with a seemingly-comfortable 8-2 lead.
Erin Matthews and Hannah Smith both walked to lead off and both scored on a double by Millie Fox, but that was it as the talented sophomore from Canada retired the next three hitters in order to end the game.
Ironically, rain had been predicted for later in the day. Clouds started moving in during the later innings and rain started to fall within five minutes of the final out being recorded.
Willis had three hits to lead the Baylor attack as the Lady Raiders finished the day with 10. Cunningham and Ellison DeMatteo added two hits each for the winners.
Smith and Halfacre were the only two Lady Chargers with two hits.
Ella Claire Chaffin was the starter and loser for CCS after allowing five runs on five hits in two innings. She was replaced by Smith with nobody out in the third after Willis led off with a single, Wallington slugged her fourth homer of the season and Amiya Leach walked.
Jasper was the winner after allowing two runs in 5.1 innings on six hits while walking two and striking out five.
While CCS is supposed to play Webb on Friday, Baylor’s final regular-season game will be Tuesday at GPS.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 000 002 2 – 4 7 2
BAYLOR 122 201 x – 8 10 0
Chaffin, Smith (3) and Flowers; Jasper, Wallington (6) and Willis.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)