If you had wanted to see Signal Mountain and Soddy Daisy play baseball and just haven’t had the opportunity, you’ll get another chance at noon on Sunday at Signal Mountain High School.
These two proud programs split their two games during the regular season, but Soddy Daisy was the champion with just one district loss to Signal’s two. They met for the third time last weekend at Red Bank in the district tournament with Signal Mountain prevailing by a 9-8 final in a game that took two days to complete after bad weather suspended play on Friday night.
And now these two teams will battle once more for a Region title on Sunday at noon after both rolled past their first-round opponents to win in a pair of games that ended after five innings due to the run rule.
Soddy Daisy opened play with an 11-0 victory over the Heritage Mountaineers while Signal Mountain followed with an 11-1 win over the Loudon Redskins.
While Soddy Daisy and Signal Mountain play for the region championship at noon, Heritage and Loudon will play again at 3 with the winner of that second game facing the loser of the first game in the third game about 6 to determine who the second team will be for the sectional round.
The Trojans were the visiting team in this game since they were district tournament runner-up and they didn’t waste any time jumping out front.
A 3-0 lead was extended to 4-0 after two innings while five runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth ended the game.
Soddy Daisy still has somewhat of a bitter taste in their mouths after losing last Sunday’s game, but they came out six days later and took care of business as they improved to 30-7, setting a school record for wins in the process.
Soddy Daisy coach Jim Higgins was happy with the way his team responded to such a disheartening defeat in their last game.
“I thought we played a good game today, but there are times when that first punch can be good and effective,” he said of his team’s fast start.
“This team had a real heart-to-heart meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday and I’m really happy with how they responded today. Winning is just part of the reward. I really love these guys as they have been consistent all season, but we got off on the right foot today.
“Alex has been a really good pitcher for us all season and he personally said he wanted the ball today. He’s really a quiet guy, but he battles when he’s on the mound. He’s the quarterback of this team when he’s pitching and the other guys do a great job following his lead,” Higgins nodded.
Pinson is a 17-year-old junior who improved to 6-0 with Saturday’s win.
“I don’t think I had my best stuff today, so I just let my defense work behind me. We ended up having a pretty good day overall,” he said in his quiet tone.
The Trojans finished the day with 10 hits, but they were also helped by four Heritage errors.
Soddy Daisy took that early lead as they batted around and had just one hit, but also benefitted from two errors, two hit batters and a walk.
Jake Jackson, who got the first inning started with a single, slugged a solo homer to lead off the second.
Then in the fourth, a pair of doubles from Keith Scoggins and Troy James plus two more errors allowed the Trojans to completely blow the game open, winning with two runs in the fifth on an RBI-single from Gabe Ferguson before a sacrifice fly to right by Gaige Hardy ended the game.
Keith Scoggins, who got hit by a pitch in the first inning and scored the third run, followed with a single in the second, a double in the fourth and another single in the fifth as he scored three runs as well.
Jackson and James both had two hits to support Pinson’s effort on the mound.
Pinson allowed two hits with two outs in the first inning before striking out Hayden Sanders to retire the side. Thomas Bowers had a one-out single in the fifth, but didn’t score.
Pinson went the distance and allowed no runs on those three hits while walking two and striking out four. He also hit one.
Sanders was the losing pitcher after allowing the first six runs on five hits before being replaced after the first two hitters reached in the fourth. He also had five walks while striking out three and hitting three.
The Mountaineers are now 16-19 following Saturday’s loss.
SODDY DAISY 310 52 – 11 10 1
HERITAGE 000 00 – 0 3 4
Pinson and James; Sanders, Hardi (4), Agre (5) and Davis, Travis (4).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)