Ooltewah got to play at home this week as it hosted the District 5-AAA high school softball tournament. And although the Lady Owls lost to a district opponent for the first time all season when they fell to Soddy-Daisy in Monday’s winners-bracket final, they came back and won the tournament.
Capping the run to the championship by beating the Lady Trojans 9-4 on Wednesday, the Lady Owls are rewarded by getting to play at home again Monday in a Region 3 semifinal.
“We’re glad to be home,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. “We play pretty well here.”
Ooltewah (39-5) will host the District 6 runner-up – likely at 7 p.m., Massey said. Soddy-Daisy (27-10) will play at the District 6 champion.
The Lady Owls rallied from a 3-2 deficit and took the lead on Tyler Sullivan’s two-RBI double in the third inning. Shelby Sutton stretched the lead with a home run on the first pitch of the bottom the fifth before Ooltewah took control with a four-run sixth on consecutive two-run doubles by Kayla Boseman and Aubbie Collake.
“We kind of have to depend on some doubles and some home runs,” Massey said. “If you have to depend on home runs and doubles, it’s not always a good recipe. At times you’ve got to get runs the old-fashioned way – bunt, run and steal. Sometimes we’re not made for that.”
Soddy-Daisy’s offense came from the first two in its order. Cameren Swafford hit a two-run home run in the second after Alexis Trimiar had singled in a run. Trimiar added a solo shot in the seventh.
“They can swing the bats,” Soddy-Daisy coach Wes Skiles said of the Lady Owls. “We knew we were going to have to hit with them. We hit some balls hard. They just didn’t fall for us at all. But I liked the way we battled.”
Boseman, the winning pitcher, walked the bases loaded in the first inning but also struck out the side. Then after giving up three runs in the second, she limited the Lady Trojans to two hits the rest of the way.
“She pitched really well,” Massey said. “A lot of times she gets by on power stuff. She hit her spots for the most part. Everything was up in the beginning. She settled in and made the adjustment. Now we’ll take a couple of days off. She’s going to need some rest, as we all are.”
Collake and Sutton each went 3-for-4 in the victory, and Mabry Carpenter was 2-for-4.
The game marked the third day in succession the teams played each other. And although the Lady Trojans finished runner-up, Skiles didn’t mind his team being pushed to the limit.
“I’m still glad we played it, though,” Skiles said. “We got more out of this than we would have practicing. We faced good pitching, good hitting. It’s only going to help us moving forward. I think Ooltewah got the same out of it. We probably both benefited from this game.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.