Jared Hensley called his baseball team out in a post-game meeting and then again in print after they lost the District 5-AAA championship in rather embarrassing fashion to East Hamilton.
Soddy-Daisy’s players absorbed the heated heart-to-heart one that carried over to the next day’s practice and responded. They broke a three-game losing streak Monday at Cookeville and then followed it up on Wednesday, securing the Region 3-AAA championship with a 15-9 victory at East Hamilton.
“I punked these guys to their faces and I punked them in the paper,” Hensley said, recalling his concern about a lack of team interest. “It had nothing to do with them as people but with them as a team. They weren’t the team they were expected to be the key word being weren’t. Maybe they were thinking about having a region berth clinched and that they’d just coast. But I’m glad they’re mine. They said since last May they were going to do this.”
Did they need the punking?
“Yes, sir,” responded senior catcher Dillon Clift. “He got us pretty good. The next day (Hensley) and I were sitting on the Gator, and he asked me what I thought. I told him I thought we’d turn it on at region, and we did.”