UTC clips Eagles in conference tournament final, 7-2

It was worth the wait.

After a week of rain delays and marathon games, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team finished off its second consecutive Southern Conference tournament title Saturday afternoon with a 7-2 win over Georgia Southern at Jim Frost Stadium.

UTC coach Frank Reed said this win is more special considering all the questions and injuries the team had to overcome to repeat as regular-season and tournament champions. Senior Laci Upchurch was forced to take a medical redshirt because of injury, and first baseman Michelle Fuzzard, second baseman Tiffany Baker and senior third baseman Toni Hutchison all are playing with injuries.

Baker and Hutchison are facing surgery once the season ends.

“This is such a special thing with these kids, in the fact that they struggled, struggled, struggled,” Reed said. “Our record doesn’t reflect how good this team can be and are becoming because of the adversity they’ve overcome.”

Perhaps the most crucial question facing the Lady Mocs (30-22) was the fate of two-time SoCon pitcher of the year Brooke Loudermilk, who had offseason shoulder surgery and didn’t play until just before conference games began midway through the season. Loudermilk started every game of the tournament, and despite soreness heading into Saturday’s final she wanted the start against Georgia Southern.

“The trainer called me this morning and told me that Brooke couldn’t go today,” Reed said. “Brooke was standing right there, and she said, ‘I’m fine, Coach, give me the ball.’”

Loudermilk gave the Lady Mocs another solid outing, pitching three innings while giving up a pair of runs, her first earned runs of the tournament. Kandice Irwin shut down the Eagles the rest of the way.

“You have a limited number of innings. There was no sense in keeping me in when there’s other perfectly capable pitchers,” Loudermilk said. “I went in and did my job, and Kandice definitely did hers.”

In a tournament that started a day late because of severe weather and had schedule changes each day, it was fitting that the final, scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., started at 4:50 after a series of weather delays and Georgia Southern’s nine-inning 4-3 win over Samford in the losers-bracket final.

GSU’s Eagles (29-25) battled back after falling to Furman in their first game of the tournament, and first-year coach Maggie Johnson was proud of what her team accomplished despite coming up short against UTC.

“We’ve had some comebacks and we’ve made some strides,” Johnson said. “We were able to put up quite a fight here. Even up until the last pitch, we were able to put up a fight. That’s all I can ask of them, and I’m proud of them.”

Georgia Southern sophomore Brianna Streetmon, the SoCon pitcher of the year, continued her strong work against Samford, pitching all nine innings to put the Eagles in the championship game against UTC. She was selected the tournament’s most outstanding player.

“It was a tough game. You just have to do it,” Streetmon said. “You just have to go out there and trust the other players behind you and get it done.”

Against UTC, Johnson went with Kristan Glover as the Eagles’ starter, and she ran into trouble in the third inning. Kaiti Kelley was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Baker. After Hutchison walked, catcher Brittany Eason hit an RBI double past right fielder Marie Fogle to score Baker, and freshman Jenni Martin singled in Hutchison for a 3-0 lead.

Baker finished the game 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

“I felt like today I was going to stay relaxed,” she said. “I didn’t try to overpower anything. I let the power stay within me.”

The Eagles scored twice in the bottom of the third on infield singles by Michelle Beasley and Nin Iduate, followed by a long double by Fogle. But Irwin pitched four scoreless innings to preserve UTC’s win with four strikeouts.

“Some days you feel like you’re on more,” Irwin said. “Warming up in the bullpen I felt more comfortable, so I was confident going into the game.”

UTC broke the game open in the top of the seventh when Kelley again was hit by a pitch, this time loading the bases, and Fuzzard and Baker followed with two-run hits.

“As soon as it happened, I knew it was going to be a big inning,” Kelley said.

GSU threatened one final time in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with no outs, but Irwin settled down to close out the game without giving up a run.

UTC will find out its NCAA regional destination tonight. The team will gather at Buffalo Wild Wings downtown to watch the selection show, which begins at 10 p.m.

“I don’t care who we play,” Fuzzard said. “Of course it would be nice to play near where I live (Huntington Beach, Calif.), but it would also be great to play in Knoxville or somewere like that and have more local fans. It really doesn’t matter.”