Walker Valley tops Ooltewah 2-0 in District 5-AAA softball showdown [photos]

Ooltewah runner Alyssa White dives to third to avoid a pickoff throw to Walker Valley third baseman Miranda Young during their prep softball game at Walker Valley High School on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, in Charleston, Tenn.
Ooltewah runner Alyssa White dives to third to avoid a pickoff throw to Walker Valley third baseman Miranda Young during their prep softball game at Walker Valley High School on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, in Charleston, Tenn.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - As a leadoff batter, Carissa Frost's job most at-bats is to try to get on base ahead of her slugging teammates. But with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning of Walker Valley's District 5-AAA high school softball game Tuesday against Ooltewah, Frost channeled her inner cleanup batter.

The left-handed sophomore got a pitch to her liking and drove it out slightly left of center field, lifting the Lady Mustangs to a 2-0 victory over the Lady Owls.

Walker Valley (23-6, 9-1) repaid Ooltewah (23-5, 7-1) for the 16-15 loss the Lady Mustangs suffered at Ooltewah on March 27. And because the Lady Mustangs have outscored the Lady Owls by a run in their district games, should they win at McMinn County on Tuesday and at home against Cleveland on Wednesday, they would be top-seeded for the district tournament.

"Really," Frost said, "that's our main priority."

Frost's heroics would not have been possible if not for No. 9 batter Abbey Davis battling Ooltewah ace Kayla Boseman until she scratched out an infield single up the middle.

"I was just thinking, 'I have to get a base hit. I have to score Abbey,'" Frost said. "I was thinking a gapper because she's fast."

It was a gapper all right - one that just kept going.

"It was about waist-high inside," Frost said of the last pitch. "Sometimes you can just tell when it comes off the bat."

Frost's exploits weren't limited to the game-winner either. She had half of her team's six hits and also made an incredible catch in deep left field with two out and none on in the fifth. She turned two different directions on the wind-blown liner before making a diving grab, hitting her head on the fence at the end.

"I just can't say enough about Carissa," Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg said. "She's a real fiery competitor. The most I've ever seen. She plays from the first pitch to the last pitch. She's a leader in the way she practices, and she's one of our vocal leaders. She stepped up in a big way today."

Not to be overlooked was the performance by sophomore left-hander Natalie Pruitt, who gave up four singles and no walks while striking out four. And she got 12 outs on the ground by her errorless defense.

"I thought our defense played really solid, and Riley Suits had a really, really good game behind the plate," Limburg said of her catcher, who executed a pickoff throw to first and caught a foul pop near the back screen. "As a catcher she's not out there getting to field the ball in play, but there's the stability she gives to our pitchers. She's always talking, always encouraging. She does a lot of things for us that can't be found on a stat sheet."

Ooltewah's Boseman struck out 12, walked one and hit two batters. She also went 2-for-3.

"The big thing that was different from three weeks ago is we went up there with zero plan," Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. "We swung at pitches you're not supposed to swing at. When she did throw strikes, we fisted it trying to hit a 250-foot home run. We made zero adjustments, except Kayla. She hit the ball hard twice.

"We couldn't run the bases. We couldn't bunt. When you can't bunt the ball in a tight game and can't run the bases properly in a tight game, you get beat."

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.

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