MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - District 5 members Ooltewah and Walker Valley kept their high school softball seasons alive Wednesday in the Class AAA state softball tournament.
Ooltewah won twice Wednesday, defeating William Blount 7-4 and winning 4-3 over Henry County, both at Starplex No. 1, to get to the winners-bracket final.
Walker Valley, the Class AA runner-up in 2005, got its first state-tournament victory as a Class AAA program by defeating Dyer County 4-3 in a losers- bracket game at McKnight Park.
With the rest of the tournament at Starplex No. 1, Ooltewah (38-6) plays today at 6:30 p.m. EDT against Powell.
Walker Valley (32-10) plays at 11 a.m. against Henry County.
» Ooltewah 4, Henry County 3: Ooltewah trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth but took advantage of a throwing error to get the game tied. With runners on the corners, the Lady Patriots tried to turn an inning-ending double play, but Tyler Sullivan beat the throw at first to bat in the tiebreaking run.
The Lady Owls escaped two troubling situations to win. To end the sixth, center fielder Addy Keylon robbed a grand slam that would've been over the fence. And they got out of a third-and-first, no-out spot in the seventh when they pulled off a double play on an attempted squeeze.
Kayla Boseman provided the first run with a home run in the third inning. She also was the winning pitcher in both games.
"We came in here knowing we were going to be seeing some good pitching," Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. "We worked on trying to hit the ball hard up the middle and to the right side. We wanted to get the ball out of the air and hit hard ground balls and line drives. We stayed the course. I know Kayla's probably tired, but she's pushed through."
Ally Chernak was 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run for the Lady Owls. Cheyanne Sales also was 2-for-4.
» Ooltewah 7, William Blount 4: With the international tiebreaker in effect starting the 10th inning, Boseman lined an RBI double into the left-center-field gap and the Lady Owls tacked on two more runs.
» Walker Valley 4, Dyer County 3: The Lady Mustangs are no strangers to come-from-behind wins this season, and this one just adds another to their collection. The Lady Choctaws rallied from down a run with a three-run sixth, only to have Walker Valley rally for three in the bottom half.
Kaylee Hughes singled in the Lady Mustangs' fourth-inning run. Michele Benson, who went 2-for-3, started the winning rally with a bunt single. Winning pitcher Natalie Pruitt gave up six hits and struck out five.
"They just never give up," Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg said. "We know this is a big stage, but we just kept fighting. We bunted on them some and executed that very well. I'm really proud of them."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.