Trailing by a run to begin the final inning, Soddy-Daisy’s baseball team rallied for three in the seventh to knock off top-seeded Bradley Central 8-6 for the District 5-AAA championship Wednesday night.
The Trojans, who entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed, struck for five runs in the third then took the lead with a clutch seventh, highlighted by Seth Coffelt’s one-out, two-run double that put them ahead.
“The kids’ never-say-die attitude stands out to me,” said first-year Trojans coach Jim Higgins. “We got down to our final two outs, but they battled hard. We went down early by several runs and they stayed resilient throughout.
“We have known we had a good team from day one. The first part of the season, we were through our first seven or eight losses – we weren’t getting beat, we were beating ourselves. It’s been a transition, and it’s taken a whole season to do it. They learned about their resilience as a team and their fight. There were times we had our backs against the wall but we came back.”
Zane Guess earned the win in relief, striking out four. At the plate for the Trojans (22-12), Spencer Gore and Hayden Maynor each went 2-for-4 and Garrett Dent and Landon Maynor each drove in a run.