All Soddy-Daisy can do is put this one in the books, the win that secured the District 5-AAA baseball championship.
In a performance that was anything but crisp, the Trojans survived their first trip to East Hamilton's new, if lightless, baseball stadium, outlasting the persistent Hurricanes 12-9 in a game threatened by quickly descending darkness.
The Trojans' saving grace was a semi-potent offense that banged out 12 hits, and it was needed to overcome a mediocre pitching performance and less-than-polished defense.
"Before we left the school I had thought we'd do two things well -- we'd hit well and pitch well -- but we hadn't taken a ground ball in nine days," Trojans coach Jared Hensley observed as darkness began to settle. "It's still a big win for us."
The Trojans will consider the result of the win a goal achieved -- 10-1 in district play -- but they might be more inspired when they host the Hurricanes tonight. Another win and the Trojans will have secured an automatic region berth, which goes only to the district champion that finishes with a two-game lead over the league runner-up.
"Oh, yeah, the guys know what's on the line," Hensley said. "Winning the district is great and all that, and I'm happy about it, because that was obviously on the list of things to do. Tomorrow's the biggest day of the season thus far. Since last November we have faced the facts. We have goals and we still have some work to do."
He's just hoping they do it better than they did Tuesday: eight walks issued by pitchers Houston Maynor, the winner, and Andy Wright, who picked up a save with three innings of relief, and four errors.
"We have to make some plays we didn't make and we didn't pitch as well as we normally do, but I'll take an average performance from our pitching staff and a so-so performance from our defense with that offense." Hensley said.
Justin Cooke went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Soddy-Daisy. Catcher Dillon Clift went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and picked a Hurricane off second base, and Wright and Chandler Sulcer each was 2-for-4.
They needed all the offense they could get because East Hamilton was pesky. They kept the pressure on, even scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth to close within three after the Trojans slapped a five-spot on the board in the top half of the inning.
"We made too many mistakes in all phases," assessed disheartened East Hamilton coach Steve Garland, whose team had suffered four one-run district losses before this game. "We can't (strand) runners. They capitalized on our mistakes, and when they'd walk a few we'd leave guys on base."
The Hurricanes left the bases loaded in the first and again in the third, when they scored three to tie the game without benefit of a hit. They also stranded two runners in the fourth and sixth innings.
"They've had some tough district losses and then they get going late, and all I can think it let's just get through this thing," Hensley said.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.