William Blount’s only serious scoring threat Saturday night in the Gold bracket championship game against Soddy-Daisy in the 20th Lady Trojan Invitational high school softball tournament came in the first inning. Hannah Smith led off the game with a line-drive single to center, and Lady Governors ended up at third and second with one out.
Winning pitcher Kelsey Nunley then got back-to-back groundouts to third baseman Brandi Lasley, who also figured prominently offensively for the Lady Trojans in their 8-0 six-inning victory.
Sequatchie County got out to a big lead then had to hold on to beat Meigs County 9-8 in six innings in the Silver-bracket final.
Aside from their first at-bat, the Lady Govs never got a runner past first base. Nunley ended up with a three-hitter with no walks and four strikeouts.
Lasley scored Soddy-Daisy’s first run after walking leading off the second. She moved to second on Mariam Wood’s single, took third on a wild pitch and came home on a passed ball on ball four to Taylor Wilson. Lasley also followed Kali Henderson’s two-run single in the fifth with a two-run triple, although she wound up being thrown out at the plate.
The game was stopped by the tournament’s eight-run mercy rule when Alex Everett hit a bases-loaded single in the sixth and the runner on first came around, too, after the ball was misplayed in the outfield.
“I’m not going to say we’re not going to get beat again, but I think we’re going to be fine from here on out,” said Soddy-Daisy coach Clifford Kirk, whose team improved to 19-1. “I feel confident in the girls. Maybe we can do it.”
Brooke Ward went 3-for-4 and scored two runs. Cassidy Hackney was 2-for-2 and Millie Putnam was 2-for-3 with a double and each scored twice. Mariam Wood was 2-for-3 with a triple for Soddy-Daisy.
Chelsea Burgess went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Haley Brock and Chasity Carlton went 3-for-4 with an RBI each in helping Sequatchie County (13-5) build a lead that included scoring six runs in the second inning. Winning pitcher Jackie Houk helped herself with three RBIs but needed relief help from Courtney Dawson to close it out.
The Lady Indians went from going 0-3 on Friday winning all four of their games Saturday.
“We came ready to play ball,” Sequatchie coach Courtney Stewart said. “We had errors yesterday. We didn’t hit the ball. It was bad. I don’t think I’ve seen us play that bad. It was ugly. If we were going to be in the Silver bracket, we might as well go win it. That’s what we told them last night.”
Lynsey Million homered twice for Meigs County. One was a grand slam. Kirstie Jennings also went 2-for-3 for the Lady Tigers.
Rain had plagued the tournament at times in years past but was a nonfactor this year. What little rain that fell Saturday didn’t put a stop to any action.
“I certainly felt better,” Kirk said. “The weather we had creates an atmosphere more conducive to softball.”