WALKER VALLEY third baseman Sidney Hooper puts a late tag on Soddy-Daisy’s Savannah Smith in the second inning of the District 5-AAA softball championship game at Soddy-Daisy, Wednesday.
But, a powerful pitching performance by the Lady Trojans’ Kelsey Nunley settled the matter in a single game. Nunley held Walker Valley to one hit and Soddy wrapped up the championship with a 6-0 win.
“It was a tough one today. It was hard but they (Soddy-Daisy) are an unbelievable team. I’m sure they will be vying for a state tournament bid. We just didn’t have it at the plate today. She (Nunley) is an awesome pitcher,” said Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg. “I thought our girls fought hard and never gave up, which as a coach is all I can ask. But, obviously we didn’t have our best game today. But, we are going to fight another day and we are excited about that opportunity. We will practice this weekend and prepare for Monday.”
Nunley tossed a perfect game against the Lady Mustangs until a hit batter in the top of the fifth gave Walker Valley its first base runner. The Lady Mustangs broke up the no-hitter with an infield single in the seventh. Nunley struck out 11 Lady Mustangs.
After two tough games on Tuesday to reach the finals, Limburg opted to start freshman Alicia Raymond over junior ace Sidney Hooper. The Lady Trojans quickly took advantage of the young righty, scoring two runs after back-to-back-to back singles.
The Lady Trojans scored five runs off Raymond before Limburg made the trip to the circle to bring in Hooper with two outs in the bottom of the second and the Lady Mustangs trailing 5-0. Soddy-Daisy added one more before the third out of the frame to make it 6-0.
Hooper fanned three and got six groundouts on balls hit back to the box to dam the flood.
“I have a lot of confidence in Alicia. She pitches excellent and has five wins for us this year. I just wanted to show Soddy a different look,” Limburg said of the change in starters. “We had two really long games last night and we just wanted to give them a different change of pace. Alicia went out there and fought for us and I’m proud of her.”
But the Lady Mustangs could not get a bead on Kelsey. Mackenzie Elrod was the first Lady Mustang to reach base after being hit by a pitch in the fifth. She was erased on a 4-3, inning ending double play.
Baylee Boen broke up the no-hitter beating out an infield single in the upper portion of the seventh, but was picked off by the Soddy catcher for the second out of the inning. Hooper reached on a Lady Trojans’ error just before Nunley got the last out of the game with a strikeout.
The Lady Mustangs will load up their equipment and travel across Monteagle to pay the Coffee County Lady Raiders Monday for a chance to play in the Region 3 championship against the winner of Soddy-Daisy-Cookeville. “We have to go over there and play our ballgame. We are going to have to play the best we can. I’m sure they are an excellent team. I haven’t seen them, but we are going to have to play our best game,” said Limburg.
LADY TROJANS 6, LADY MUSTANGS 0
Walker Valley 000 000 0 — 0 1 1
Soddy-Daisy 240 000 6 — 6 7 1
WP: Kelsey Nunley. LP: Alicia Raymond. 3B: Savannah Moore (SD). 2B: Haley Reynolds (SD). Highlights: Reynolds 2-3, Moore 2-3 (SD). Records: Walker Valley 25-10; Soddy-Daisy 39-4.
