When Soddy-Daisy plays again Monday in the Region 3-AAA baseball tournament, the Trojans will be looking to set another record.
Winning the program’s first district championship in nine years earlier this week, they won their 29th game and eclipsed a school record set in 1977 by a Soddy-Daisy team that won the state championship. The record was tied in 2001 when current assistant Ben Parker was a player and again in 2004 when current Trojans head coach Jared Hensley was an assistant to Steve Garland.
The Trojans enter Monday’s game against the loser of the Coffee County-Cookeville game with a 29-5 record.
“The key has been everybody doing their job,” Hensley said. “Our motto this year has been ‘Pack your own parachute,’ and everybody has been committed to their assignment. The pitchers have pitched and the hitters have hit. The team chemistry has been great and the senior leadership phenomenal.”
Soddy-Daisy got three straight wins in the District 5-AAA tournament, which ended Wednesday night at Rhea County. In the Trojans’ title-clinching victory over Walker Valley, L.J. Rowden carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and finished with a 9-0 shutout.
Zach Stephens homered in each of the wins, including a walk-off two-run shot in a come-from-behind victory over Bradley Central on Saturday. Adam Hodges pitched a two-hitter, giving up two unearned runs, in that one. In one of the games, left fielder James Fowlkes hit for the cycle and did so in order — single, double, triple, homer.
“I felt going in that we could be good,” Hensley said. “I thought some people were going to have to step up and that we were going to have to have consistency on the mound, but I wasn’t expecting this type of success. We still have some games to win and a ways to go, but the guys have stayed humble and hungry.”
Jackson on brink
With still one more hurdle to clear before the state track meet, Howard sophomore sprinter LaQuisha Jackson is setting herself up to challenge two records that are more than 30 years old.
The Howard sophomore announced her arrival as the state’s top female sprinter last year, dominating the 100- and 200 -meter dashes with the fastest girls’ times in all classifications and helping the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams win state titles as well.
Track athletes in all classifications will compete in state qualifying meets Monday and Tuesday, and Jackson enters the Class A/AA sectional having already improved on her championship times of a year ago.
Barring injury, she appears poised not only to bring back multiple state championships but potentially multiple state records at the Spring Fling meet May 27.
At last week’s Best of Preps meet at GPS, Jackson ran the 200 in 24.10, which is ahead of the state-meet record of 24.14 set in 1978. Also at GPS, she ran the 100 in 11.88 seconds, just behind the state record of 11.84 set in 1980. She broke a 29-year old national AAU record in the 400 last summer,but likely won’t run that event at the state meet.
“At the rate she’s going, I’m really excited to see what she’s going to do,” Howard coach Jennifer Mitchell said. “Every meet I tell her to go break a record, and she does. It’s gotten to where we just expect it from her every time she runs.”
Also, Howard’s boys’ 4×100 relay team’s best time this season is less than one second off the pace of the state record set in 1983.