CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The third time wasn’t the charm for Ooltewah High School’s softball team. But the fourth was.
For the last three years Walker Valley had knocked the Lady Owls from the district tournament and ended their season. But Ooltewah got a little vindication the last two days, capping its run to the District 5-AAA championship Wednesday at Bradley Central with a 3-0 victory over the Lady Mustangs.
Both teams advance to the Region 3 tournament, which is scheduled to start Monday. Ooltewah (35-8) will host Cookeville at 6 p.m. District 6 winner Rhea County will host Walker Valley (24-9) at 7.
Allie Jones, who signed in November with Lincoln Memorial University, and Cameron Baltimore, who signed Tuesday with Cleveland State, are the Lady Owls’ seniors.
Jones had a first-inning single that drove in Ooltewah’s first run Wednesday and walked in her next three plate appearances. Baltimore was the winning pitcher Tuesday when the Lady Owls beat the Lady Mustangs in the first game of the final, which came after a win over Soddy-Daisy that clinched the region berth.
“I always remember the feeling of always being one game away,” Jones said of coming up short of advancing to the region in her first three years on the team. “We had the potential. We couldn’t get over the hump.
“Before the season, the ultimate goal for me being a senior was getting to the region. Once we made that happen, all these girls were still hungry. I was still hungry. After we knew we were in the region, then we wanted to go after the district championship and have the chance to play at home on Monday.”
Jones’ RBI was the lone run in the game until the bottom of the sixth inning. But as it turned out, one run was enough for freshman right-hander Kayla Boseman, who pitched a two-hitter with eight strikeouts. And that was with a torn fingernail on the index finger of her pitching hand.
“She gutted it out and pitched well,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. “I thought she had good stuff, but she wasn’t feeling great.”
Alicia Raymond had both hits off Boseman, who walked one and hit one. Massey credited a 20-minute defensive-refresher at school before making the trip for the Lady Owls’ errorless effort.
“Boseman pitched a great game,” Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg said. “Their defense was solid. They made the plays they were supposed to make. But the way we swung the bats is not going to get it done against a quality opponent like Ooltewah. If we’re going to be successful, we’ve got to hit better pitches and have better at-bats.”
Ooltewah’s tack-on runs came from freshman part-time player Tyler Sullivan, who batted ninth against the Lady Mustangs and singled in two with one out in the sixth.
“That’s really hard to come in like that, especially for a freshman,” said Jones, who bats third in the order. “It would be hard to come in like that as a senior. I’ve told her before, ‘You wouldn’t be out there if we didn’t believe in you. Coach Massey wouldn’t put you in if he didn’t believe in you.'”
Although the Lady Mustangs advanced to the last three district finals, they lost each time, making this their fourth consecutive road trip for a region semifinal. They hadclose losses at Coffee County in 2012 and ’13 and a 4-3 loss at Cookeville last year.
“At some point something has to give,” said Limburg, who has six seniors. “If we want it bad enough, then we’ll be successful. It all comes back to us.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.