CLEVELAND, Tenn. – District 5-AAA baseball continues today – on Mother’s Day – and regular-season champion Bradley Central and runner-up Soddy-Daisy moved closer to a rematch of their hard-fought season series.
With a six-run fifth, Bradley walked off with an 11-1 victory over East Hamilton on Saturday. Soddy-Daisy used six second-inning runs to thwart upset-minded Ooltewah 11-3 at Cleveland.
“This time last year we were at Engel Stadium watching the Lookouts. I think (family) are glad to be here watching us play,” Bradley coach Travis Adams said.
Trojans counterpart Jared Hensley ducked the possible doghouse by giving his wife an I-watch.
“I’m pretty sure she’s happy,” he said.
So with Mother’s Day chores handled – at least to some extent – the 5-AAA coaches can focus on the second games of their respective best-of-three series. If both Bradley and Soddy-Daisy win today, their championship game will be at 7 p.m. Monday. However, if East Hamilton and Ooltewah win, Monday’s schedule would have Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah playing at 5 and East Hamilton meeting Bradley at 8 with the championship game then falling to Tuesday at 7.
Bradley took full advantage of facing a Hurricanes team that used its Nos. 1 and 2 pitchers in play-in wins over McMinn County and Walker Valley.
“Sure, we wanted to get it over in five if we could – save the pitching, take no chances,” Adams said. “If you can get out of there, then get out of there. That’s a great way to try and save Brandon.”
It’s hard to imagine that his pitcher, Brandon Thompson, broke much of a sweat. The senior, District 5-AAA co-player of the year along with fellow pitcher Gunnar Norwood, threw a one-hitter and struck out four. The only East Hamilton hit came from junior Nick Woods, a University of Tennessee commitment.
“Winning the first one in a series, it shifts the pressure back to the other team, but we can’t take our foot off the pedal,” said Adams, whose team rolled through the district undefeated. “Our series with them was a big win the first game and a dogfight the second.”
Thompson was also one of the offensive stars with a 2-for-3 showing that accounted for two of the Bears’ runs.
While Bradley locked up a region berth by winning the regular-season title by three games, East Hamilton, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy have to get a region trip by winning the district tournament title or finishing second to Bradley.
Soddy-Daisy, which has been looking forward to a rematch with the Bears after losing its two-game series with the champs by two runs, used some timely hits that were coupled with three Ooltewah errors, three walks and a hit batsmen to break the game open. The big blow was a towering two-run homer from Tre Carter, the first of two circuit shots for the UT signee.
Carter and winning pitcher Gavin Rogers (7-1) each went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
“I thought we had some big hits in some good opportunities, but I felt like they put us in a position to do that,” Hensley said. “We put some pressure on them and they didn’t make some plays and we strung a couple of hits together.
“I was pleased with a few of the little things we did, but I think some of those little things allowed us to apply that pressure. But some of the little things we didn’t do in a closer game would have killed us.”
He compared it to college basketball’s tournament time.
“I’m happy. It’s the postseason, and when it’s March Madness you don’t care how you win or what you look like,” Hensley said. “It’s all about surviving and advancing.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.