Soddy-Daisy secured its only lead in its initial at-bat Tuesday afternoon, parlaying a bunt single and back-to-back errors into a run.
It was more than home coach Steve Garland could stand, and his East Hamilton Hurricanes heard about it in succinct terms before they ever got a chance to even the score.
Yet they heard his complaints and heeded his chiding, rebounding from the deficit and then holding on to upend the visiting Trojans 8-7.
"The two games we've won thus far we dumbed it up defensively in the first inning. I went nuts on them and they responded both times," Garland said. "Maybe they don't like the kinder, gentler coach. Maybe they want somebody to challenge them."
Garland's first challenge came on the heels of a 6-2 Monday loss at Soddy-Daisy when his Hurricanes were no-hit through the first five innings. He sought plate intelligence and positive results and got both to accompany a solid pitching performance by Brandon Del Valle.
After getting just one hit the previous day, East Hamilton erupted for 10 Tuesday, led by Tyler Blum's 2-for-3 showing that included a solo home run. Braden Griffith also had two hits as seven of the Hurricanes collected at least one.
"This is what we've been working on," Garland said of the offensive outburst. "We have a veteran team and they've been doing this for a while. It's just taken us a little while longer to get started than what we'd been hoping for."
Del Valle gave his team six solid innings - twice pitching out of jams not solely of his own making - but had to have help after loading the bases in the seventh.
"I really felt like he competed but then ran out of gas there at the end," Garland said. "Credit to Soddy-Daisy. They kept playing and made it interesting."
The Trojans scored six runs in the top of the seventh and had the tying run at the plate before Chuck Bronson struck out the final two batters to preserve the Hurricanes victory.
Soddy-Daisy had two on with one out in the third, but catcher Will Campbell picked off a runner and Del Valle induced an inning-ending fly to center. In the fifth the Trojans got singles from Joshua Perez and Addison Roberts before Del Valle again escaped with a fly ball, this time to right. A 6-4-3 double play ended another potential Soddy-Daisy rally in the sixth.
The Trojans finally got to Del Valle in the seventh. They loaded the bases and then the Hurricanes hurler forced a run home when he hit Harrison Travis. Roberts and Luke Ellis followed with run-scoring singles but Bronson settled in, giving up a run-scoring groundout before striking out the next two batters.
"I told my guys last night that we'd probably see a different East Hamilton team today, and we did," Trojans coach Jared Hensley said just moments after the game. "We put pressure on them early and they responded. Then we got the bats going."
He made it clear that no one in Soddy-Daisy blue is going to like losing, but he wasn't entirely miffed.
"We're very young and everybody knows that. Today was a learning experience," Hensley said. "We could've had some give-up at-bats there at the end, and instead the guys kept their approach. We're not proud of the (final score) or of losing, but this is a learning experience and just the early part of a journey."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.