Soddy Daisy’s Lady Trojans picked a bad day to play one of their worst softball games of the season.
Don’t misunderstand. These girls had an amazing season with first-year coach Chris Day and they created a lot of excitement for the home folks, but that all came to a screeching halt at Warner Park’s Field No. One Tuesday afternoon when the Lenoir City Lady Panthers advanced in Region 3-AAA with a solid 6-3 win.
Lenoir City improves to 16-13 and will play Heritage for the region championship later this week while Soddy Daisy’s season ends with 23 wins and a dozen defeats.
Soddy Daisy has gotten into a bad habit this spring of getting off to slow starts, but more often than not, were able to overcome those to win. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday.
Lenoir City took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and made it 6-1 with three more runs in the fifth. The Lady Trojans never got untracked and really looked like they would have liked to be anywhere else other than playing softball on a damp day where the rain stayed away long enough to get the game in on the artificial turf.
Izzy Webb was the starting pitcher for Soddy Daisy and took the loss after allowing five runs on six hits before being replaced by Abby Pinson with nobody out and two runners on in the fifth.
Molly Robinson and Bella Rusnick both walked in the first and scored on a double to deep center by Kylee Hanson, who finished the game with two doubles, a triple, two runs scored and three RBIs. Lenoir City’s third run scored on a Soddy Daisy fielding error.
Meanwhile, Lady Panther pitcher Kymbal Williams pitched a dandy of a game as she went the distance and allowed those three runs on just five hits. She also had one walk and one strikeout. The only blip on her performance was an error she made in the seventh. She’d retired the first two Lady Trojans on routine grounders and got an easy come-backer from Skylar Gooden. She had plenty of time to make what could have been the final out with a good throw to first, but she threw wildly as Gooden raced to third.
Nobody was hurt as the game ended when Abby Faires grounded to third for the final out.
Lenoir City coach Matt Helton was almost overcome by emotion when the final out had been recorded, but he was one more happy fellow as his girls played a solid game from start to finish and clearly deserved to win as they just wanted it worse than the Lady Trojans.
“That was a good game,” he said after a brief chat with his girls when all was said and done.
“I really don’t know what to say, but I’m not shocked as we’re capable of playing like this every time out. I think we were frustrated from driving down yesterday and not getting to play, but we got great hitting, solid defense and Kymbal Williams pitched a heckuva game.
“I think we came ready to play and executed in every aspect. But this is really exciting for us as this is the first region final we’ve advanced to in the last 20 years. But I’m just really proud of these young ladies as they did what they had to do today to beat a really good Soddy Daisy team,” he added.
Soddy Daisy’s Day didn’t dodge any bullets with his post-game comments.
“I don’t think it was supposed to end like this as it’s really disappointing for us all, but they were just better than we were today and earned a big win,” he said away from the Soddy Daisy dugout.
“It took us a while to get in gear, but we never really made the necessary adjustments. We gave ourselves a chance, but it was simply too late. We had a good year and got better as the season progressed, but we just don’t like for it to end this way. But the bottom line is that they just beat us today,” he nodded.
Lily Blaylock reached on a Lady Panther error to start the fourth inning and later scored the first run on a groundout by Webb as the difference was 3-1 after the fourth.
The Lady Panthers then responded with three more runs to put the game out of reach. Sophie Reed led off with a single and stole second before scoring on a double by Reagan Helton, signaling the end for Webb. Pinson quickly got a strikeout for the first out, but Hanson followed with a triple to right-center for a 5-1 lead and Williams drove in another run with an infield grounder.
Soddy Daisy’s best chance to rally happened in the sixth when Ava Blue singled with one out and was safe at second when a fielder’s choice throw was dropped. Williams was never fazed as she got the next two outs on flies to the outfield.
Gooden then scored Soddy’s final run in the seventh after an RBI-single by Blaylock, but the game ended when Faires grounded to third for the final out.
Hanson was the offensive leader for the Lady Panthers with three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored while Helton added two hits. Lenoir City finished with eight hits for the game.
Nobody for the Lady Trojans had more than one hit as they had just five for the game.
LENOIR CITY 300 030 0 – 6 8 2
SODDY DAISY 000 110 1 – 3 5 2
Williams and Rusnick; Webb, Pinson (5) and Woodward, Blue (5).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)