Lady Tigers ready to defend

There’s no trip to Florida at stake this year in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII softball tournament at Columbia, Tenn.

The 2009 winner goes to St. George, Utah.

Top-seeded Chattanooga State gets to wait until Saturday to see what happens today between Cleveland State (25-24) and Roane State. The winner of that 3 p.m. EDT game at Columbia State will play the perennial champion Lady Tigers at 1 p.m. EDT Saturday.

The TCCAA/region baseball tournament also starts today at Columbia State. Chattanooga State’s Tigers face Motlow State at 1 p.m. EDT to determine who plays Saturday at 2 p.m. against second-seeded and 24th-ranked Cleveland State.

For the Lady Tigers, 55-7 and ranked fourth in NJCAA Division I, this has been a season of great balance. The hardest thing for coach Beth Keylon-Randolph, who had to address some discipline issues last year, has been coaching while pregnant.

“We have so many kids with a ton of RBIs and multiple home runs, and so many with high 3s or 4s batting averages,” she said.

Indeed, no fewer than eight Lady Tigers have averages above .380, led by sophomore right fielder Britni Pearce at .478 with 60 runs scored. She’s driven in 25.

Sophomore Jessica Duncan is a part-time outfielder with a .456 average, in addition to being the third pitcher with a 13-0 record and a 1.30 earned run average. Freshmen Haley Workman and Kendall Bruning are 25-3 and 17-4 with 0.85 and 0.99 ERAs.

Workman has struck out 274 batters in 173 innings. Bruning and Duncan have 129 and 122 strikeouts in 127 and 103 innings.

“I think our pitching staff is better this year — them, not me,” Duncan said Thursday. “And I think as a whole we’re more of a team. We get along better than last year.”

Assistant coach and athletic director Steve Jaecks has likened this team to an octopus, Keylon-Randolph said: “If one tentacle doesn’t get you, another one will.” And, she added, “What stands out about this group is that I cannot say there’s one player we can’t do without.”

Not that she wants to test that in the next several days. She said sophomore Amber Janus, for instance, is “without a doubt” the best shortstop she’s had at Chattanooga State, and that includes some excellent past players.

“She’s so mentally solid. She’s always in the right spot,” the coach said. “And her hitting is starting to come around.”

Janus is batting a mere .315. Among other regulars, first baseman Whitney Galloway is batting .425 with 39 extra-base hits, 63 RBIs and 52 runs, catcher Ashley Bryson is at .417 with 48 RBIs and 31 runs, second baseman Leah Kelley is at .404 with 48 RBIs and 40 runs and third baseman Meagan Qualls is at .381 with 51 RBIs and 53 runs. Bruning has .385 with 50 RBIs and 29 runs in 55 games, and backup first baseman Ashleigh George is hitting .400.

Galloway, Bruning and Qualls each has 10 homers, while Bryson and Kelley have nine and eight.

Tabitha McNew (.307) was the left fielder and leadoff batter until breaking a finger, and she’s ready to start playing again. Brianna Payne (.364), Chelsea Simon and Kaela Jackson also are in the outfield rotation.

The Lady Tigers lost two games to Walters State the day before they rose to No. 1 in the NJCAA and another to Motlow State the next day. Those defeats dropped them to No. 4 but help Keylon-Randolph’s motivational talks.

“That put it in perspective that every team has players and every team comes to compete,” she said. “Our players realize that. I just stress to them that they love the game and play with passion — that they never give less than their best.”