By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Both the Union City girls’ and boys’ track teams earned runner-up finishes in the 42nd annual UC Rotary Relays Friday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium.
The Lady Tornadoes placed second behind meet champion Chester County, totaling 92.5 points to the Eagles’ 102. UC’s boys finished with 104 points, to rank No. 2 only to Haywood, which posted a whopping 164.5 points.
It was a good Friday for the Union City High School baseball team, too, the Golden Tornadoes pushing across the game’s only run in the bottom of the seventh to beat South Fulton 1-0 in the District 13A Tournament.
Top seed UC faces No. 2 Lake County tonight at 7 at Elam Stadium, the winner earning not only a berth in Wednesday’s tourney championship round, but also a spot in next week’s regional tournament.
Despite an 8-4 loss to Bradford Friday, the Union City softball team remains alive in the double-elimination District 13A Tournament.
The Lady Tornadoes play an elimination game against Gleason today at 6:30 p.m. at Eddlemon/Hawks Field, a win pushing them into another do-or-die game in tomorrow’s losers’ bracket finals against either Bradford or South Fulton at 4:30.
The UCHS tennis teams split a pair of 4-3 matches against Halls in their final regular season competitions of the season, the Tornadoes winning and the UC girls falling.
Union City will be well-represented in today’s individual district championships, however, as both the boys’ and girls’ doubles finals are all Purple and Gold, while the Twisters have a player in both singles titles matches, too.
That action is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the UC Middle School Courts.
Friday’s highlights are as follows:
HIGH SCHOOL TRACK
Relay teams shine for UC
After a strong showing in the field events and distances races on Tuesday of the two-day event, Union City racked up several points in Friday’s relay competitions to ensure their respective runner-up finishes.
The Lady Tornadoes took first place in the 4X100, the quartet of Byonca Shade, Daija Nunley, Kylie McCadney and Shyon Stephens posting a time of 53.91 to earn 10 team points.
McCadney added another 10 to the total with a No. 1 finish in the 200 meter dash, finishing at 28.08.
The 4X200 unit consisting of Shade, Nunley, Stephens and McCadney came in second with a time of 1:55 to earn eight points.
Shade, Nicole Bone, Chanyah Liphford and Lizzy Jones teamed up to finish third in the 4X400 and earn six points. They were clocked at 5:02.10.
The 4X800 foursome of Bone, Katelyn Edmond, Jones and Alexa Nolan was fifth at 13:34, good for four points.
Individually, Liphford was third in both the 100 meter hurdles at 23:48 and 100 meter dash at 13.66, each good for six points.
Shade placed fifth in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:07.32.
There were 16 teams in all in the girls’ field.
The Union City boys added points to their team total in nine events to place second among a dozen teams in the meet.
A pair of runner-up finishes topped the Tornadoes’ list of accomplishments as the 4X800 relay team of Bobby Chrisp, BJ. Frankum, Ben Martinek and Matthew Parr posted a time of 8:44.94 to earn eight points. Jaheim Ceasar was second in the 400 meter dash (54.38), adding another eight to the team total.
Both the 4X200 (Quailvarious Brown, Kyrell Littleton, Skylar Mayes and Brandon Addison) and the 4X400 (Alexander Cox, Grant Jernigan, Parr, Martinek) units were third in their races. The former posted a time of 1:40.79, the latter 3:56.29, each netting six points.
The 4X100 crew (Addison, Tamarius Ingram, Mayes and Byron Watt) was fourth at 51.23 for five points.
Ceasar was good for five more following a fourth-place finish in the 200 meter dash, his time 24.42.
Mayes was fifth in the 110 hurdles (20.74) and Martinek sixth (2:09.84) in the 800 meter run.
Parr (1600 meter run), Jernigan (400 meter dash) and Chrisp (800 meter run) all added to the point total with eighth-place finishes in those events.
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
UC 1, SF 0
Tyler Walton’s sacrifice fly to rightfield scored Will Hogan with one out in the Tornadoes’ last at-bat to lift Union City to a thrilling victory over the Red Devils.
Hogan tripled to center leading off the seventh and was joined on-base by Austin Atwill and Carson Sinclair, both of whom walked to load the bases. Walton then lofted an 0-2 pitch to the outfield that was deep enough to bring in Hogan and give UC its 23rd win of the spring and third in as many games against SF.
Conner Hurt (6-0) outpointed the Red Devils’ Brock Brown in a classic pitcher’s duel. Hurt scattered six hits and a pair of walks, bearing down repeatedly to strand eight South Fulton baserunners, including three in the sixth. He struck out four while throwing 86 pitches in lowering his seasonal earned run average to 1.13.
Hurt was helped by error-free defense, shortstop Tyler Walton making a couple of impressive plays, while new third baseman Mason Reed flawlessly handled a handful of chances. Reed is filling in for Miles Odle – the senior Twister who tore his ACL in the final regular season game earlier last week.
Not only a standout defender and valuable starting pitcher, Odle was leading the team in hitting and RBI when he suffered his season-ending knee injury.
Brown was equally impressive for the Redmen Friday, allowing but two hits and two walks while throwing 45 of his 68 pitches for strikes.
Hurt had Union City’s only other hit, a single in the fourth.
HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL
Bradford 8, UC 4
The second-seeded Lady Tornadoes (14-10) now find themselves in a win-or-go-home situation after losing to a Bradford team they’d beaten twice during the regular season.
Union City can still advance to next week’s regional by winning its next two games – against Gleason today, and then vs. the loser of today’s South Fulton-Bradford contest, Tuesday at 5.
Avery Decker and Sophie Theobald both went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI for the Twisters against Bradford Friday.
Tiffanie Oldaker had a hit and scored, while Kyndall Davis singled and drove in a run.
Kallie Worrell was the losing pitcher after going the first five innings and surrendering four runs. Theobald was touched for four runs in two innings of relief.
HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS
UC 4, Halls 3 (B)
Halls 4, UC 3 (G)
Hard-fought singles wins by Haden Wilson and Walker Ross and a pair of 8-4 victories in doubles by the tandems of Wilson Harris/Ross and Wilson/Caleb Parker lifted the Tornado boys to a close triumph in their final regular season match of the season.
On the girls’ side, Halls avenged an earlier loss to UC, winning three singles matches and splitting two doubles competitions.
Erin Gill and Gracyn Callicott rolled to wins for the Lady Tornadoes in individual play, while the doubles duo of Meg Kizer and Gussie Parks won convincingly, 8-1.
Boys’ Singles
Wilson Harris lost to Hunter Pounds 6-8
Caleb Parker lost to Logan Turner 4-7 (Tiebreak)
Hayden Wilson beat Hayden Cherry 9-7
Walker Ross beat Cameron Spiers 8-4
Justin Rice lost to Chandler Reed 6-8
Doubles
Harris/Ross beat Pounds/Turner 8-4
Wilson/Parker beat Cherry/Gaines 8-4
Girls’ Singles
Meg Kizer lost to Ellie Young 6-8
Gussie Parks lost to Cameron Reed 4-7 (Tiebreak)
Zoe Cagle lost Jordan Reed 3-8
Erin Gill beat Madison Byrd 8-2
Gracyn Callicott beat Sophia Palencia 8-1
Doubles
Cagle/Sailor Bearden lost to Reed/Reed 4-8
Kizer/Parks beat Young/Byrd 8-1
Menu
