CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The winners-bracket semifinals in the District 5-AAA high school softball tournament Saturday at Bradley Central could not have played out in a more opposite fashion. One was decided late. One was decided early.
As a result of Walker Valley edging Ooltewah 4-3 and Soddy-Daisy cruising past East Hamilton 15-0, the Lady Mustangs and Lady Trojans will square off in Monday's winners-bracket final scheduled for 8 p.m.
"If we are going to reach our goal of winning district," Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg said, "the best way to do it is through the winners bracket.
Three losers-bracket games were also played Saturday. Monday's action at Bradley Central will begin with a losers-bracket game at 6.
Third-seeded Walker Valley (23-7) went to the top of the seventh inning trailing the second-seeded Lady Owls 3-1. A.J. Chancey started the winning rally with a single ahead of a walk to Emilee Spann.
Alicia Raymond, who tied the game in the second with a sacrifice fly, doubled to left to cut it to 3-2. Still with no outs, Limburg went with a squeeze bunt with Mackenzie Elrod up. Then a throwing error on the play, magnified by Raymond's aggressive baserunning from second base, sent Walker Valley into the lead.
Raymond was also the winning pitcher. She gave up seven hits and two walks, both to Mabry Carpenter. With no strikeouts, she relied on her defense.
"Everybody has to contribute or we're not going to be successful," Limburg said. "This game was an example of that."
Losing pitcher Kayla Boseman allowed five hits and two walks while striking out 10. She also went 3-for-4 with a double and drove in a first-inning run.
Allie Jones homered leading off the fourth for Ooltewah, and Jadyn Raschke drove in a run on a force play later in the inning.
* Soddy-Daisy 15, East Hamilton 0: The top-seeded Lady Trojans did all of their offensive damage in two at-bats in the three-inning game. They took advantage of eight walks, all scoring, but also had 10 hits, including a three-run home run by Cameren Swafford.
Swafford, Macy Bryant and Brooke Hale were each 2-for-2 for Soddy-Daisy (28-7). Bryant had a two-run double in the first inning, and she and Hale were among five Lady Trojans who scored twice.
Pitcher Emily Edwards did not give up a hit in her short outing. She walked one and had four strikeouts.
"Our offense was very patient today," Soddy-Daisy coach Wes Skiles said. "Yet when they throw a strike in there we wanted to be aggressive, and we did it. I was really proud of our pitching, proud of our defense, and especially proud of the hitting."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.