Soddy Daisy Softball Rally Thumps Baylor, 10-3

The Soddy Daisy Lady Trojans felt right at home Monday afternoon at Baylor.

These two softball teams are annually among the best in the state and they've had some memorable games in years past, but Monday's game was all Soddy Daisy.

Baylor scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning before the Lady Trojans sent 11 hitters to the plate in the third where they scored six runs en route to a convincing 10-3 win.

The fourth inning was almost as productive as Soddy Daisy batted around again while scoring four more to put the game out of reach.

"That was an awesome game, but I felt like we played well in all aspects of the game," said Soddy Daisy coach Wes Skiles after his team had imrproved to 24-7 with the non-district win.

"Baylor has a great team.  They're well coached and they have a classy group of young ladies.  We always try to play them near the end of the season, so we knew they would be tough.

"We got down early and it would have been easy for us to just lay down and give up, but I'm proud that we didn't.  We responded in a positive way and did what we were supposed to do," he continued.

Senior Emily Edwards was the winning pitcher as she went the distance while allowing seven hits and two walks while striking out three.  Three of Baylor's hits came in that second inning,   She allowed singles to Kamrie Rich in the third, Lauren Lewis in the fifth and Cheyenne Lindsay in the seventh -- all with one out, but in every case retired the next two to escape further trouble.

"Emily has done a great job for us all year as her confidence is better and she's stepped up a bunch.  I was hoping to use two or three pitchers today just to give them some time in the circle, but Emily was pitching so well that I just left her in there," Skiles added.

While Edwards did her job as a pitcher, the Soddy Daisy defense played errorless ball and every member of the starting lineup had at least one hit.

Meagan Beasley was the only one who had two.

Madison Mathis and Maya Mathis both had run-scoring singles in the Baylor third wrapped around a run-scoring double by Lindsay, but that didn't seem to faze the Lady Trojans as they came right back to take the lead and then some.

Using five hits, two errors and a pair of walks, the Lady Trojans doubled the score in the third.  Three of those five hits were doubles, including two-run shots by Abby Walker and Grayson Brown and another by Beasley that drove in another.

Then in the fourth when the Soddy Daisy offensive attack continued, Alexis Trimiar's single drove in Brooke Hale, who had led off with a double.  Cam Swafford had the big blow in the inning, a three-run homer to dead center.

The Trojans didn't have another hit the rest of the way, but the damage had been done as Baylor was unable to come back.

Baylor coach Kelli Smith had a long discussion with her team afterward as she's trying to get her team back on track after losing for the second-straight game.

"We had a big emotional win over GPS here last week, but we just haven't played very well since," she began after her team had fallen to 17-3-1 for the season.

"We haven't been as sharp and we haven't lost confidence in our two pitchers.  Soddy Daisy hit it well today and we had two bad innings that were just too much for us to overcome.

"Soddy Daisy always has a great team and you have to bring your best effort against a team like that.  There's no margin for error, but we just have to keep our heads up and keep fighting.  We don't want to fall short at the end," she added.

Baylor's next game will be at home on Friday against Ensworth.  Brentwood Academy pays a visit on Saturday while the regular season ends with a game at GPS on Tuesday.

Soddy Daisy's next game will be a huge District 5-AAA contest against Ooltewah on Wednesday at Soddy Daisy.

SODDY DAISY  006 400 0 -- 10 10 0

BAYLOR  030 000 0 -- 3 7 2

Edwards and Swafford; Hughes, Quinn (3), Hughes (4) and Rich.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)