Bears win 7-4, making Owls pay for mistakes
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Bradley Central baseball coach Travis Adams said after Tuesday’s home game that earlier in the season his team’s offense struggled at times but the pitching staff kept the Bears in games. But against Ooltewah, it was his team’s defense that made the big difference.
Conversely, the Owls committed three errors that contributed to the Bears taking a third-inning lead, and Bradley held on for a 7-4 victory in the District 5-AAA game.
Bradley (11-7) improved to 4-2 in the district, which Soddy-Daisy leads. The Trojans had a 5-0 league record headed into their Tuesday game at Cleveland.
The game at Bradley was 1-1 going to the bottom of the third inning, which started with a double to left field by Dylan Standifer. He then scored on an error on Pete Williams’ sacrifice bunt.
After Caden Sherlin singled and the next batter popped out, the Bears pulled off a double steal. That set the stage for winning pitcher Andy Bunch’s sacrifice fly to right, and another run scored on an error to put the Bears up 4-1.
Then they loaded the bases with one out the next inning and got an RBI single from Sherlin, a run-scoring walk from Riley Black and another sacrifice fly from Bunch.
“We had a couple of defensive plays that really hurt us,” Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox said. “We threw the ball in the dugout. We didn’t cover a base on a bunt. We didn’t make an easy routine play at third base. We gave them five or six outs there, and they scored three runs. Then we had the one inning where the strike zone disappeared and we struggled to get back in there, and we give up another three spot.
“We gave them extra outs. We played bad. We had baserunners on but didn’t score enough when we had opportunities. You’re not going to beat anybody doing that.”
After getting a run back in the top of the fifth, Ooltewah (10-5, 4-4) got a rally going in the seventh that started with consecutive singles to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Tyler Phillips hit into a force play that drove in a run. Kaben Bragg singled in another run before the final out with runners on third and second was registered with a strikeout.
“We swung it better this series than we had the first two,” Adams said of the district season. “Same thing with errors, which obviously can be costly. But because we played good defense today it helped us out, especially when you consider the walks and the hit batsmen we had. That could’ve led to some big innings, but we stayed out of them.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.