It’s probably safe to say that the Soddy Daisy Lady Trojan softball team may be the hottest team in the state right now. After all, they have won their last 10 games and 14 of the last 15, including shutout wins over both Baylor and Silverdale in the same week.
No other team can make those claims.
The Lady Trojans put a 15-4 whipping on the number-one seed East Hamilton on Monday night in the winner’s bracket final of the District 6-AAA softball tournament at Red Bank and they proved it wasn’t a fluke after posting a 10-0 victory in six innings on Tuesday to claim their second straight 6-AAA tournament title.
Soddy Daisy had season highs with 15 runs and 16 hits on Monday night and even though they didn’t match those numbers on Tuesday, they were equally as impressive after finishing with 10 hits and at least one run in four of the six innings played.
Soddy Daisy coach Kelsey Nunley-Moore is just happy to be part of this group that improved to 27-5-1 with Tuesday’s win and will host a region semifinal on Monday.
“I’ll take it as that was a lot of fun,” the former Soddy Daisy great said after her team received the championship plaque.
“Our dugout was so loud and energetic as we were ready to play. And Regan Rowan was throwing harder than ever and hitting her spots with no fear. I don’t have to say a whole lot after a game like that, but I did our little team chant and that told them just pleased I was with the way they played,” the coach continued.
Rowan is a 17-yer-old junior won once again went the distance. She only had five strikeouts, which is less than half of what she normally gets, but she limited the Lady Canes to just two hits, two walks and one hit batter.
And while she didn’t match her hitting on Monday when she had four hits, including three doubles, she finished the game with one hit, but it was a biggie as she stroked a three-run homer with two outs in the sixth to drive in the last runs of the game for the Lady Trojans.
Izzy Webb led off the Soddy Daisy sixth with a double before Skylar Gooden walked. Abby Faires took a called third strike for the first out before Tatum Massengale popped to first for the second out, but the hard-throwing junior wasn’t going to be denied. She fouled off a couple of pitches, including one that had home-run distance but was about 10 feet foul. She didn’t miss on the last one as it cleared the fence in left with ease.
“That home run felt so good since I had struck out in my previous time up, but I feel really good about my pitching tonight. I didn’t have as many strikeouts, but that really doesn’t matter as my defense made some great plays behind me. And I pitched a shutout against a good East Hamilton team in the district final, so I’m really happy about that,” the 17-year-old junior said with a smile.
Massengale gave Soddy Daisy a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the first inning while Hannah Patterson ripped a two-run homer in the second to make it 3-0. The Lady Trojans then added four more runs in the fourth with Patterson and Izzy Webb both getting RBI-singles before Gooden had a two-run single for the last two runs.
The Lady Trojans had two runners on in the fifth, Adasyn Wilkey getting hit by a pitch before Patterson singled, but East Hamilton pitcher Yulai Woodruff then struck out the final two hitters to prevent any further scoring.
Then in the sixth, Webb’s leadoff double and Gooden’s walk set the stage for Rowan’s three-run blast.
Rowan limited the Lady Hurricanes to just one hit and three total base runners before the last inning.
Reese Knox had a leadoff walk in the first and stole second and third before being stranded there. Gabby Printup got hit by a pitch with one out in the third before Knox singled, but the inning ended when Bailey Poschke lined hard to Abby Faires in center, who fired a strike to first to double up Knox.
Then in the sixth, Poschke got East Hamilton’s second hit with a one-out single to right. Grace Hixson then walked, but that’s where they ended as Woodruff flied to Webb in right to end the game.
East Hamilton coach Norma Nelson felt like her team competed better on Tuesday than Monday, but it was still a lopsided loss.
“There are a few things we need to fix, but we won our first game tonight and we’re headed to the region. Our goal at this point is to just keep playing. Soddy Daisy is playing really well right now. I thought we played much better tonight than last, even though we got run-ruled in six,” she said.
Patterson had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Lady Trojan attack while Wilkey and Webb also had two hits apiece. Rowan drove in three runs with her big home run while Gooden also had a pair of RBIs.
While Rowan was the winner, Ashlynn Watkins took the loss after allowing seven runs on seven hits in four innings of work. Woodruff came in and pitched the final two innings and gave up the last three runs on three hits, but she was much more effective on Tuesday than on Monday.
East Hamilton had earned a spot in the championship game after beating Hixson 8-4 in the loser’s bracket final. The Lady Canes jumped out early with four runs in the first and wrapped things up with two more in the sixth, but you could tell that they really didn’t have their heart in it and basically did just enough to keep playing.
Knox, Poschke and Hixson all had three hits for East Hamilton while Woodruff drove in four runs with a pair of two-run doubles.
Meg Kernea was the only Hixson player with two hits.
CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY
SODDY DAISY 120 403 – 10 10 0
EAST HAMILTON 000 000 – 0 2 0
Rowan and Wilkey; Watkins, Woodruff (5) and Poschke.
LOSER’S BRACKET FINAL
HIXSON 120 001 0 – 4 7 1
EAST HAMILTON 410 102 x – 8 14 4
Schalk, Martin (2), Turner (4) and Kernea; Woodruff, Watkins (4) and Apps, Poschke (4).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)