By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–The Union City softball team completed a memorable comeback Wednesday.
The Tornado baseball team will get a chance to do the same Monday.
UC softball won its fourth straight game after falling into the losers’ bracket of the District 13A Softball Tournament, earning that postseason championship with a 4-1 victory over Bradford at Eddlemon-Hawks Field.
Tornado baseball, meanwhile, saw the opportunity to earn a matching title in the 13A baseball tourney go by the board after losing twice to Lake County, 13-1 and 10-9, in the district finals at Elam Stadium.
Both Union City teams will, nonetheless, move on to regional play Monday – softball hosting Halls at 6 p.m., baseball playing at Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson at 6 o’clock.
A recap of Wednesday’s action is as follows:
SOFTBALL
UC 4, Bradford 1
The Lady Tornadoes capped their thrilling run through the 13A losers’ bracket by beating Bradford for the second time in as many days and fourth time in five meetings this spring.
After losing to the Lady Red Devils in the second round of the tournament, the Purple and Gold beat Gleason, South Fulton and Bradford twice in succession – the first of those decisions a nail-biter that went nine innings and actually propelled the Twisters on to the title.
“One thing about these kids, they never get too high or too low. Their demeanor to stay steady and handle adversity has been amazing,” head coach J.B. Suiter said afterward. “This group has been such a pleasure to coach.
“After the Gleason game, I thought we exhaled a little, and we did that a little more after beating South Fulton Tuesday afternoon and qualifying for the regionals. And we just continued to play and do the things that we have to do to be successful.”
Kallie Worrell smacked her fourth home run of the season and also tossed a complete-game four-hitter with five strikeouts to headline Wednesday’s championship game triumph.
Tied at 1, UC (19-10) scored three times in the fourth and never looked back.
Worrell began the rally with a single and courtesy runner Faith McLendon scored the go-ahead run on an error when Kyndall Davis’ bunt was mishandled. Gabby Jones got aboard via another Bradford error, one that scored Davis, and Jones later came around and reached home plate on a passed ball.
Avery Decker, Gracie Laster and Davis all had hits for the Lady Tornadoes, following Worrell, who recorded two safeties.
Union City did not commit an error defensively, while Bradford was guilty of four.
Worrell, Decker, Laster, Sophie Theobald and Tiffanie Oldaker were all named either all-district or all-tournament in postgame ceremonies. Suiter was named Coach of the Year.
BASEBALL
Lake Co. 13-10, UC 1-9
Having sailed unbeaten through the 13A regular season and already beaten LC a third time this year earlier in the tournament, the Tornadoes (24-9) couldn’t finish the deal for their second straight postseason title.
Union City committed an uncharacteristic seven errors in the two games, compounding that with a handful of mental errors.
After a mercy-rule Game 1 loss, the Twisters fell behind 9-1 before battling back to tie the game in the seventh. A two-out game-winning single by Lake County’s Dezmon Johnson denied UC the ultimate comeback though.
“It was a tough day for us,” Tornado head coach Cole McAdams said following the second game. “Our guys expected to win the championship and they’re disappointed that they didn’t. I was proud that they fought until the end of the second game after falling behind big and after the beating we took in Game 1.
“The most important thing, though, is we have another chance Monday. We have what we feel like our No. 1 guy (Peyton Edwards) going and if we play well, we can wash this taste out of our mouth and everything will be alright. I expect us to bounce back and be ready to go.”
Lake County roughed up three UC pitchers for 16 hits in the opener, scoring 11 times in innings 4-6.
Conner Hurt suffered his first loss in seven decisions.
Hurt did have two of the Twisters’ six hits and scored Union City’s lone run.
In the nightcap, UC put up a six-spot in the third to get back into the contest after the Falcons had scored eight times in the first.
Tyler Walton came on in relief and allowed the Tornadoes to hang around with a nice 6 2/3 inning stint.
Walton also tripled and drove in four runs in all. Will Hogan tripled, later scoring, and drove in a run, while Austin Atwill plated two runs and Dawson Searcy had an RBI.
Atwill was recognized as the league’s Co-Player of the Year while Edwards was noted as the Pitcher of the Year in postgame award ceremonies. Hurt, Hogan, Walton, Searcy and Miles Odle were all named to either the all-district or all-tourney team. McAdams received Coach of the Year honors.
Ten UCHS seniors earned spots on the All-Academic team, including Odle, Hogan, Hurt, Walton, Atwill, Edwards, Searcy, Jaxon Moran, Pierce Kizer and Carson Sinclair.
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