CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- For the first time since Walker Valley, Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah have all been in the same district, Walker Valley won its way to a berth in the Region 3-AAA high school softball tournament by staying in the winners bracket throughout the District 5 tournament.
That goal accomplished, the Lady Mustangs can now turn their attention to trying to win the district tournament and host a region game for a change.
Walker Valley defeated Soddy-Daisy 8-6 on Monday at Bradley Central in the winners-bracket final and secured a spot in tonight's final at 7.
Ooltewah beat East Hamilton 10-0 in five innings in a losers-bracket game Monday. The Lady Owls and Soddy-Daisy will play today at 5 in the losers-bracket final with the winner advancing to the final. If necessary, a second championship game would be played Wednesday.
Lara Bean, whom Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg dropped from the No. 4 spot in the batting order to seventh, went 3-for-3 for the Lady Mustangs with a two-run homer in the fourth and another RBI. She also walked and scored.
"She knows she's been slumping a little bit at the plate," Limburg said. "Plus she got hit the other day. She just stepped up big."
Other key hits for the Lady Mustangs were Emilee Spann's two-run single in the first inning and Sydney Ventura's two-run triple in the third. No. 3 batter Hallie Davis was intentionally walked in all four of her plate appearances and scored one run.
"We wanted somebody else to beat us besides her, and to their credit they did it," Soddy-Daisy coach Wes Skiles said. "Their other hitters stepped up."
Soddy-Daisy got two on with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but winning pitcher Alicia Raymond got a groundout and a lineout to end it.
"You just never know what kind of game it's going to be," Limburg said. "But you know it's going to take scoring some runs. Soddy has been hitting the ball well lately. We lost to them 7-1 just last week. The same goes for Ooltewah, or anybody in this district. You're going to have to score runs."
Both Lady Trojans runners in the seventh were in scoring position when leadoff-batter Brooke Hale, who was 3-for-4 when she came to bat, lined a shot directly to Davis at shortstop. In all Soddy-Daisy left 10 on base, eight on either third or second.
"We still felt comfortable at the end," Skiles said. "The ball just didn't bounce our way this time."
Among the key hits for the Lady Trojans was a three-run double by Meagan Beasley in the first and a two-run single by Grayson Brown in the fourth.
Soddy-Daisy (26-8) split two games in the regular season with Walker Valley (24-7) and with Ooltewah (32-8), which sent 13 to bat in a nine-run first inning against the Lady Hurricanes.
Winning pitcher Kayla Boseman threw a one-hitter and also went 4-for-4 with an RBI. Allie Jones doubled twice among her three hits, drove in two runs and scored twice. Aubie Collake and Tiera Lemon each went 2-for-4 with Collake driving in two runs and Lemon scoring two.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter/KelleySmiddie.