The District 6-AAA softball tournament was supposed to start on Friday night at Soddy Daisy High School, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
Play finally began about noon on Sunday where Central’s Lady Pounders advanced with a 16-13 victory over Red Bank in the first game. Central wasn’t as fortunate in the second game as top-seeded Soddy Daisy posted a 9-1 victory in five innings at Clifford Kirk Stadium/Lamar Lasley Field.
The Lady Trojans now await the winner of Sunday’s second semifinal between Signal Mountain and Hixson in Monday’s first game at 5. The loser of that game faced Red Bank in Sunday’s fourth game with the winner facing Red Bank on Monday at 7.
Soddy Daisy coach Chris Day knows that his team can’t afford to overlook anyone. He also knows that his team got off to a slow start in this latest game, but was happy to watch as his team took care of business.
“I thought we started off a little too relaxed as the Central pitcher did a good job, but we started putting the ball in play the second time around,” he said after his team had improved to 21-11 for the season.
“I thought our pitching was solid as was our defense, but you can’t afford to underestimate anybody at this point. I know we’ll have another tough game tomorrow and I’m hoping that we’ll score more runs early, but we didn’t panic and played with a lot of confidence,” the coach praised.
Central put two runners on to start the game as Marisa Salinas singled and Kennedi Saab walked, but they didn’t score as Soddy Daisy pitcher Izzy Webb retired the last two without further incident.
Skylar Gooden led off the bottom of the inning with an infield single, but was doubled off first when Lily Blaylock popped to the pitcher. Caitlin Cunningham got Abby Faires on a called third strike and then retired the side in order in the second, but things changed in the third.
Addi Standefer got hit by a pitch to lead off the third before Cunningham got two quick outs on grounders. Walks to Gooden and Blaylock got the Lady Trojans moving as Faires followed with a two-run single. Ava Blue drove in the third run with another single to right while a third-straight single by Webb plated two more. A throwing error by the Central third baseman allowed Webb to cross the plate with the sixth run.
Central scored its only run in the fourth as Naveah Frank led off with a double, went to third when Carli Morgan reached on a passed ball third strike before scoring on a double steal.
The Lady Trojans then added two runs in the fourth before ending the game with another tally in the fifth.
Wylee Woodward and Chloe McDonald had back-to-back singles to start the fourth with McDonald scoring on a groundout by Blaylock. Gooden stole home for Soddy’s eighth run.
Then in the fifth, Blue led off with a single and stole second before going to third on a pinch-hit single by Kahlen Sexton. A fly to left by Abby Pinson ended the game as Blue scored for the eight-run difference.
Blue was the only Lady Trojan with two hits while Webb was the only one with two RBIs.
Webb was the winning pitcher for Soddy Daisy after allowing the one run on three hits. She also had a walk and two strikeouts. Pinson pitched the final two innings with no runs on no hits and a walk. She also had four strikeouts.
CENTRAL 000 10 – 1 3 2
SODDY DAISY 006 21 – 9 8 0
Cunningham and Lakin; Webb, Pinson (4) and Woodward.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)