By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Officially punching its ticket to the state softball tournament turned out to be nothing more than a formality for Union City.
The Lady Tornadoes earned a berth in the Class 1A tourney for just the second time in the program’s 28-year history by outclassing Memphis Middle College 18-0 in a mercy-rule sectional rout Friday.
UC (21-9) will play its first-round game Tuesday at either 4 or 5:30 p.m. against a yet-to-be-named opponent. Pairings are determined via blind draw and will be announced by the TSSAA on Saturday.
Union City’s only other trip to the state tournament came in 2015 when Wade Maddox led the Purple and Gold to a school-record 29 wins that included both the district and regional championships.
J.B. Suiter has piloted this year’s Lady Twister squads to those two titles as well and has UC peaking at the most opportune time. The team has won six straight in the postseason after Friday’s romp over the overmatched Memphians.
“I’ve said this all year about our kids, it’s absolutely the best family unit of kids that I’ve ever coached in my 15 or 16 years,” said Lady Tornado head coach J.B. Suiter, who is now 97-58-1 in five seasons at the Union City helm. “And it’s about more than today.
“It’s about us getting on a roll after we got bumped into the loser’s bracket in the district tournament offensively and pairing that with really good pitching and defense.”
Friday’s triumph was indeed a mercy-rule win in every sense of the word.
The first 15 UC batters reached base in the bottom of the first. Afterward, Suiter substituted freely. The coach was so gracious to the visitors that he had his players leave base early intentionally for automatic outs four times in the Lady Tornadoes’ two at-bats.
Union City scored 15 times in the first inning on 12 hits and three MMC errors.
Sophie Theobald and Anna Lynn Cheatham both had two hits and three RBI in that first frame – each smacking a triple. Bayleigh Long tripled, singled twice, and scored twice, while Bailey Decker drove in two runs with a triple and a single.
Marlee Theobald had two hits and scored twice, Avery Decker and Lainey Barker crossed the plate two times apiece, and Morgan Palmer tripled in a pair of runs.
The Lady Bulldogs could manage but a couple of foul balls on weak contact against Sophie Theobald and Cheatham, who combined to record eight of their nine outs via strikeout. Theobald (9-5) got credit for the win after pitching the first and third frames.
MMC did have two baserunners – one via a hit-by-pitch that was erased on a steal attempt, the other on a walk.
UC will now play the waiting game before trying to win for the first time ever in the state tournament Tuesday.
“We’re going to take a day off, then come back in and kick up our pitching machine to try to get out of any bad habits we might’ve had today against the slow pitching,” Suiter said.