Ooltewah shortstop Tiera Lemon throws the ball to first against Collierville game at the Summit Softball Complex.Little did anyone know that Allie Jones’ home run with two outs in the bottom of the first inning would end the scoring in the final of the first Ooltewah Invitational high school softball tournament. But thanks to junior right-hander Cameron Baltimore and her defense, it did.
Jones’ swing and Baltimore’s three-hitter were big keys in the Lady Owls’ 1-0 championship victory over Collierville at The Summit of Softball Complex on Saturday.
Ooltewah (16-5) had taken some lumps recently in District 5-AAA play but rebounded and defeated neighboring rival East Hamilton 3-2 on Thursday and beat Polk County the same day to get the tournament started.
After rain washed out Friday’s play, the Lady Owls returned to the field Saturday and were particularly stingy in giving up runs.
“We’re making better contact, even though we only scored one run in that game,” Ooltewah first-year coach Jon Massey said of his team’s recent turnaround. “We’ve been pitching it well, as a whole. We’re not bad defensively. We just struggled putting the ball in play the first couple of weeks. Maybe we were trying to be too perfect on the ball.”