Ooltewah's baseball team has leaned on pitching and defense during a successful season, and Monday night's Region 3-AAA semifinal win over Warren County was more of the same.
The Owls scrapped their way to a 4-2 win at home behind a strong performance on the mound from Daniel Willie and some nifty defense up the middle.
"Tonight was a microcosm of our season," Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox said. "We're based on pitching and defense. It gives our defense a lot of confidence having a guy working quickly and throwing strikes, and vice versa, our pitchers have confidence in our guys to get us back in the dugout to hit."
Willie scattered eight hits in his seven innings of work for the Owls (28-6). He worked through five scoreless innings before running into trouble in the sixth and working out of another jam to close out the game in the seventh.
"He pitched fantastic for us," Hitchcox said. "They have a lot of guys that won't go away and are tough to strike out. They had some good at-bats with two strikes against Daniel. He battled against a tough lineup and got the job done for us."
Willie limited the damage with some help from his middle infield. Shortstop Andrew Manning and second baseman Jake Morrow turned two double plays, including a timely one in the sixth to erase baserunners ahead of run-scoring hits for Warren County's Isaac Golden and Wesley Jennings.
The pair also combined for two forceouts in the seventh to take runners out of scoring position.
Ooltewah's batters did just enough to reward the stout defensive effort, scratching across a run in the second and another in the third before adding two in the fourth.
"Getting those runs helps you relax a little bit," Hitchcox said. "We knew (Warren County) wasn't going to go away. We've seen them come back from big deficits, so any time we could stretch our lead was good."
Austin Spurgeon walked, advanced to second when Morrow was hit by a pitch, then swiped third and scored on the errant throw to third. Ethan Walls walked and scored on an error the following frame.
In the fourth inning Zach Wolfe was hit by a pitch for the second time. He stole second and was plated by Andy Reed's double, which was his third hit of the game. Reed advanced on a ball in play to the right side and scored on Manning's RBI groundout to add all the insurance the Owls would need.
Warren County wound up 23-14.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.