Staff Report
Sophomore pitcher Brooke Loudermilk matched her team-record 15 strikeouts in the first game and won the second one in relief as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga opened Southern Conference softball play Friday by defeating UNC Greensboro 4-1 and 4-2 at Jim Frost Stadium.
Freshman Katie Blevins hit a long home run to put the Lady Mocs ahead 1-0 in the second inning of the first game and added a three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh to provide a dramatic second triumph. UTC is 18-14 overall.
Loudermilk pitched only two-thirds of an inning in game two, after freshman starter Kandace Irwin allowed only four hits and struck out six batters. Michelle Fuzzard had the Lady Mocs’ fifth-inning RBI hit, after UNCG (9-17, 0-2) scored in the top of the inning, but the Spartans went up 2-1 in the seventh on a Leslie Furness double after Brittany Ausley’s leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt.
After Loudermilk entered and hit a batter before getting the last two outs, Lauren Flores opened the UTC seventh by reaching on an error. Fuzzard forced her at second, and then pinch runner Lyndsey Stiles moved to second on a Toni Hutchison walk and both scored on Blevins’ 11th homer of the season. She is three short of Angela Brewer’s single-season school record set in 2001.
Hutchison was 2-for-3 with a double in game two. Catcher Lynleigh Hurndon, surprised by the arrival of her Army staff sergeant brother, Jacob, was 2-for-3 in the first game for UTC, when leadoff batter Tara Tembey was 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs. It was Tembey’s fourth homer of the year.
Staff Sgt. Hurndon returned from a 15-month deployment to Iraq.
Loudermilk threw a three-hitter in the opener, and she now has 410 career strikeouts part way through her second collegiate season.
The teams conclude their series with a noon game today at Frost.
