Offense & Defense All Click In 10-3 Win Over Lady Trojans

There's no question that Baylor and Soddy Daisy have won more state championships in softball than any team around and they continue to play each other, despite the fact they are in different classifications and never face each other in the post season.

Baylor has won 17 state titles, including an amazing nine straight in a stretch that ended last spring while Soddy Daisy has won eight.

Soddy Daisy coach Chris Day is just hopeful that his Lady Trojans will have similar success.  They aren't there quite yet, but they're headed in the right direction.

These two teams played each other Tuesday afternoon at Soddy Daisy's Clifford Kirk Stadium/Lamar Lasley Field with Baylor winning by a 10-3 final. It was a much closer game than that score might indicate as Baylor scored five runs in the final two innings to break it open.

Baylor coach Kelli Smith, who works every day with the intent on getting her girls back to that state championship form, says that her team has been playing some solid softball in recent games and she didn't have anything but good things to say after Tuesday's final out had been recorded.

"It was a great start for us as we scored three runs in the first inning without a hit," she said after her team had improved to 9-2.

"I'm so proud of our defense as we work on that every day in practice.  We turned two around the horn double plays today, but the key in that situation is knowing what to do and to execute it perfectly.  It seems that everyone on our team contributed today and those girls who pinch-hit have earned that right as well through their hard work.

"Soddy Daisy has a fine team and they put pressure on our defense, but I'm just really happy with how we played in all aspects of the game," she said with a smile.

Soddy Daisy coach Chris Day knows that his team continues to get better and he's more concerned with that than wins and losses.  He knows as well as anyone who watched that Tuesday's game was much closer than the final score might indicate.

"It seemed like two totally different games," he said after the Lady Trojans evened their record at 6-6-1.

"I thought we did a nice job of putting the ball in play, but all of those errors really hurt us.  We have to be solid on defense in games like this, so we'll focus on that tomorrow in practice.  I thought we sort of lost our focus at the end, but I'm glad that we're headed in the right direction.

"All of these games early in the season against the best teams in town will only make us better and that's what I'm counting on as we approach the post-season," Day added.

Wrigley Burge and Spencer Higgins got walks to start the game for Baylor and both scored when a hard hit off Xahara Willis' bat was dropped.  Amiya Leach then drove in the third run with a groundout to second.

The lead stretched to 5-0 in the third when Higgins led off with a walk and scored ahead of a two-run homer to dead center by Willis.

Adison Wallington went the distance for Baylor and got the win after allowing six hits and four walks and the three runs.  The Lady Trojans didn't have a hit the first time through the order, but scored single runs in the fourth and fifth, both on wild pitches, to make the game just a bit closer.

Baylor never backed down and answered with four runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh.

Olivia Elkhill, who had three hits to lead the Lady Raiders, drove in the first with a single before the second scored on a Lady Trojan error.  Higgins then wrapped up the scoring with a two-run double off the fence in center.  Leach reached on another Soddy Daisy miscue in the seventh and scored the last run on another single by Elkhill.

Wylee Woodward singled to lead off the Soddy Daisy seventh.  Courtesy runner Madi Crutcher advanced to third on two wild pitches before scoring on a groundout by Nevaeh Dyer.  Maci Moss and Lily Blaylock then had back-to-back singles with two outs before Chloe McDonald grounded into a fielder's choice to end the game.

While Wallington was the winning pitcher for Baylor, southpaw Abby Pinson allowed the first five runs on just three hits in four innings to take the loss.

While Elkhill had three hits for Baylor, teammates Willis, Wallington and Rylee Jasper all had two on the day. Blaylock was the only Lady Trojan with two.

Soddy Daisy returns to action at Hixson on Thursday while Baylor will travel to Murfreesboro this weekend to take part in the Southern Warrior Classic hosted by Riverdale.

BAYLOR  302  004 1 – 10 12 0

SODDY DAISY  000 110 1 – 3 6 3

Wallington and Willis; Pinson, Webb (5) and Blue, Dyer (5).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
"Total Team Effort" Leads Baylor Past Soddy Daisy - Chattanoogan.com

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