Soddy-Daisy won two games in the Ooltewah Invitational on Friday and hoped to carry that momentum over to Saturday’s contest against Columbia Academy at Tom Higgins Field.
But the Trojans ran into junior left-hander Baylee Dees.
Dees, who transferred to Columbia Academy from Page prior to the current school year, limited the Trojans to two hits and a run over six innings.
The smooth-throwing Dees, making his first start for the Bulldogs (5-3), gave up a run and two hits in the seventh before giving way to reliever Alex Huey, who put an end to the rally and preserved a 4-2 victory.
“It wasn’t necessarily the way I threw,” Dees said, “I just tried to hit the strike zone and rely on my teammates behind me.”
Well, that’s exactly what Dees did.
He struck out six and walked two.
One of the walks to Jacob Jennings in the fourth inning wound up giving the Trojans their first run. Joshua Perez got a two-out free pass in the first, but never got past first base as Dees struck out Harrison Travis.
In the seventh, Soddy-Daisy (5-5) got back-to-back hits from Addison Roberts and Luke Ellis, the Trojans’ starting pitcher. Huey relieved and Huey came on in relief and retired three in a row, although Zane Guess’ groundout scored Roberts from third.
“It was a great performance by Baylee,” Bulldogs coach Richie Estep said. “We’re trying to figure out our pitchers from the 3-4-5-6 spots and he’s definitely in the mix. Our reliever today (Huey) is our No. 1 guy.”
Can Estep see Dees getting more and more work?
“If he throws like he did today, yeah,” he said, adding a caveat. “We have guys that throw strikes, but don’t the stuff that Baylee has. He has good stuff, but he doesn’t always throw strikes. I’m going to pick strikes over stuff every time. Today, he was pounding the zone.”
Roberts, who also doubled with two out in the fourth inning, made an adjustment after his first at-bat and had success against the Bulldogs’ hurler.
“In my first at-bat I hit a little rinky-dink ground ball to shortstop and I told myself I didn’t get a long enough look at the ball,” he said. “So I scooted back in the (batter’s) box and I stayed on the ball. For a lefty, the ball tends to move a little bit and you have to react to that.”
Shutout for three innings, the Trojans’ Jacob Jennings started the fourth by drawing a walk and moving to second on Joshua Perez’s groundout. Travis flied out to right and Roberts drilled double to right to score Jennings.
In the seventh, Roberts singled to center and Ellis moved him to third on a hit to right, chasing Dees. Huey came on and retired Zane Guess on a grounder to second and Roberts scored. Huey then struck out Aaron Crouch and Spencer Gore to end the game and record a save.
“I thought their starter did a great job,” Trojans coach Jared Hensley said. “When he was ahead in the count he gave us a lot of trouble.”
The day before Soddy-Daisy, who opens a key early season home-and-home series with District 5-3A rival Cleveland on Monday, posted wins over Murfreesboro Magnet School (8-5) and Bearden (11-3).
That offense didn’t show up Saturday and Dees may have had something to do with Trojans’ bats being silent for much of the game.
“I thought we were a little off today and got off to a slow start,” Hensley said. “I challenged them to find the guys that were here (Saturday). We hit some balls hard but right at people.”
Columbia catcher Noah Brock and right-fielder Kaleb Jeans started the first inning with back-to-back singles. Brock scored when Will McCall hit into a double play.
Soddy-Daisy starter Luke Ellis kept the Bulldogs off the board over the next four innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth.
Brock singled and went to second on Jeans’ sacrifice bunt. Ellis hit McCall and when Anthony Kintz reached on second baseman Reed Cranmore’s error the bases were loaded.
Jennings, playing third base, charged Blake Kincaid’s slow roller and muffed the play, allowing Brock to score and leaving the bases still loaded. Huey walked to force in another run.
A third run crossed when Drew Logsdon hit into a fielder’s choice, barely beating a throw to first that would have been a double play.
Ellis got out of the jam when Alec Wright grounded out.
“Columbia Academy did a good job putting the ball in play and that forced us to make plays,” Hensley said. “We made some mistakes on defense. We’ve got some guys banged up a little bit and had some guys out of position, but that’s not an excuse.
“These weekend tournaments give you a chance to put some different people in there and some take advantage of it and some people don’t. Experience is really valuable. I’m proud of the effort my guys gave us although the weekend didn’t start and end like I wanted. We’ve got the big series with Cleveland coming up Monday, so to say we’ve got bigger fish to fry is a huge understatement.”
BOXSCORE
Columbia Academy 100 003 0 – 4 6 0
Soddy-Daisy 000 100 1 – 2 4 2
Dees, Huey (7) and Brock; Ellis, Warren (7) and Travis.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)