Soddy-Daisy's Haley Reynolds, left, slides in to home past Riverdale's Josie Messick for the first score of the night at Soddy-Daisy Friday.There was "somewhat" of a celebration among his players after their game Friday, about what Soddy-Daisy softball coach Clifford Kirk figured.
"You know how it is," he said. "We expect to go."
Where they expect to go is to the TSSAA Class AAA softball tournament, and they will next week after defeating Riverdale 8-1 in a state sectional at Soddy-Daisy.
The Lady Trojans were state runners-up in Murfreesboro last year and champions the year before. They will be seeking their 11th finals appearance and eighth championship.
The game was a rematch from April 22 that Soddy-Daisy won 8-0, although all the runs were unearned and all in one inning. The Soddy-Daisy crowd Friday was expecting to see a return pitching matchup between the Lady Trojans' Kelsey Nunley, a University of Kentucky signee, and Rachel Albritton, who has signed with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Although Albritton made the trip and was dressed out, Kirk said he knew something was suspicious before the game started.
"I saw her get off the bus and she wasn't walking too well," Kirk said.
Riverdale coach Jeff Breeden, who threw sophomore Kristin Uselton, confirmed afterward that Albritton had a partial tear of an anterior cruciate ligament. She suffered the injury while doing some extra pitching work at Riverdale's facility after Wednesday's Region 4-final loss to Lincoln County.
Uselton kept the Lady Warriors in the game until three-run rallies in the fifth and sixth innings ballooned the one-run lead Soddy-Daisy (42-4) had taken in the fourth.
"I thought we had a little trouble with her at first," Kirk said. "She threw the same pitches. Of course, Albritton is more seasoned."
There was also a Riverdale error in each of the Lady Trojans' two big innings.
"I thought Kristen pitched well," Breeden said. "They're a good team. They hit the ball well, they had a squeeze that worked and we made a couple of errors. We've had a hard time the last part of the season closing out games. People have been scoring on us in the fifth, sixth, seventh innings.
"Tonight was a little bit conducive of how we've been playing. I'm not at all disappointed in the way we attacked Nunley. She's the best pitcher in the state, in my opinion."
Nunley ended up with nine strikeouts, but she walked one, hit one and made one of Soddy-Daisy's two errors. She gave up five hits but no more than one in any inning.
"She wasn't as sharp as she has been," Kirk said.
Cassidy Hackney was 3-for-4 for with a double, an RBI and a run scored for Soddy-Daisy. Hannah Smith was 2-for-4 with a tie-breaking leadoff home run in the fourth.
Haley Reynolds doubled and scored the Lady Trojans' first-inning run on Savannah Moore's single. Moore had a run-scoring squeeze bunt in the fifth and another RBI single in the sixth. Reynolds contributed an RBI fielder's choice in the fifth, which included Jessica Boles' RBI single.
Brenna Wolfram doubled and scored the run for Riverdale (45-13) in the second on Mattie Woodruff's sacrifice fielder's choice. Leadoff batter Katie Brown went 2-for-4.