MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Dashed hopes. Again.
Ooltewah came up short for the second time in three years in the TSSAA Class 3A state softball tournament Thursday, dropping a 3-1 decision to Henry County that sent the Lady Owls packing for home.
“We finished 33-10 and had a good year,” Lady Owls coach Jon Massey said.
“A lot of people would have loved to be in Murfreesboro and playing for a state championship. We didn’t execute much offensively and that’s been our Achilles heel all year.”
The Lady Owls finished third in 2015 and missed the 2016 tourney after losing to Stewarts Creek in the sectional round.
Ooltewah opened this year’s tournament with a 5-0 win over Dyer County, but fell to Gibbs 7-3 on a walk-off grand slam in the seventh inning Wednesday. That set up the elimination game with Henry County.
After scoring five runs in the tournament-opening win over Dyer County, Ooltewah managed just four runs in back-to-back losses.
The Lady Patriots (30-10) advanced to another do-or-die showdown later Thursday against Coffee County, which earlier beat Brentwood 6-3.
Henry County scored in the first inning catcher Caroline Hudson singled to center and later scored on an infield hit by Sophie Piskos.
Held scoreless for four innings, the Lady Owls managed to tie the game in the fifth.
With two outs, Addy Keylon singled and Tiera Lemon walked. Shelby Sutton’s single to right scored Keylon and Tiera Lemon rounded second and tried to get to third, but was thrown out.
“It was a bang-bang play,” Massey said, “but she was out.”
Henry County added a single run in the sixth when Abigail Wilson walked, stole second, moved to third on Olivia Boyd’s bunt single and scored on a fielder’s choice.
The Lady Patriots added an insurance run an inning later when Piskos doubled, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and came home on a squeeze play.
In the sixth, Ooltewah’s Kayla Boseman, who gave up six hits and all three runs while taking her second loss in as many days, singled. Carpenter bunted her to second and Carpenter beat the throw to first. However, Boseman rounded second too far and a throw behind her beat the runner scrambling back to the base.
“We hit too many balls into the ground and that was a change from what we’ve been doing – hitting too many fly balls,” Massey said. “We got a couple of dinkers and dunkers today.”
LINESCORE
Henry County 100 001 1 – 3 6 3
Ooltewah 000 010 0 – 1 6 0
Brown and Hudson: Boseman and Sales.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)