The last time Chattanooga State hosted the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII baseball and softball tournament, the softball Lady Tigers went from there to win the national championship.
That was in 2012, and the region championship did not come easily. One crucial win for the Lady Tigers went 13 innings.
Moreover, as the postseason tournaments return today to the Amnicola Highway campus, no one is still around from those 2012 national champions. Even the coaching staff is different, but last year's Lady Tigers finished third in the national tournament under Blythe Golden, and she and her team would like to get back there.
Again they are nationally ranked and seeded No. 1, having just reclaimed the TCCAA's top spot after losing three of four games to now No. 2 seed Walters State three weekends ago.
The Chattanooga State baseball Tigers of coach Greg Dennis also are in a favored spot, seeded second behind nationally ninth-ranked Walters State and in the top 20 themselves. And they beat Walters two out of three games.
After going 8-1 in their first three TCCAA series, the Tigers (27-10, 17-7) lost back-to-back series against West Tennessee teams going into the three games against Walters (41-9, 22-5). But beginning with their success against the formidable Senators, they went 8-2 in their last three series.
Walters was ranked No. 4 in the country when it met the Tigers. So was the Chattanooga State softball team, which used its frustrating weekend against the Morristown school as a motivation as well.
"Our bats were really, really cold that weekend," Golden said, "and we got reminded that no matter how talented you are, somebody can beat you if you don't do your job. We used that as a period of growth.
"We talked about that the next two weekends, and they jumped in with that and got really hot against Columbia State."
The Lady Tigers (41-11, 28-4) went 8-0 in its last two weekends, with six games ended early. The last four games were against Columbia (32-15, 25-7), which had moved ahead of them along with Walters (37-8, 29-5).
"We're extremely talented, and if we utilize our pitching staff corectly and everyone does their job, we stand a good chance in the tournament," Golden said. "But playing in tournaments, you absolutely want to stay in the winners bracket. You don't want to put your pitchers through those extra games, and you don't want to have to beat someone twice at the end to win the championship."
The softball tournament is set to end Saturday afternoon; the baseball final is set for Sunday. Both tourneys are scheduled to begin today with two games each in which the winners advance to double-elimination play.
In baseball, weather permitting, seventh-seed Southwest Tennessee (20-25, 8-14) meets No. 10 Roane State (4-35, 2-24) at noon and No. 8 Cleveland State (22-20, 9-17) meets No. 9 Motlow (8-29, 7-20) at 3 p.m. That winner takes on Walters at 4 p.m. Thursday; Chattanooga State opens against Southwest or Roane at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The softball schedule begins with Cleveland State (9-27, 8-26) against Southwest Tennessee today at 2, the winner meeting Chatt State at noon Thursday, and Dyersburg facing Roane at 4 to set up Walters' matchup at 4 on Thursday.
Michael Goss and JoJo Underwood lead Chatt State's baseball team with .360 and .352 batting averages and 31 and 38 RBIs, followed closely by Andy Clay (.346, 24) and Thomas Schmal (.330, 28). Pitcher Austin Hutchison is 7-2 with a 2.16 earned run average, and Nick Mason is 6-0 with a 4.29.
Shannon Plese, Lindsey Stickrod, Courtney Crawford and Katy Richardson are batting .451, .447, 426 and .401 for the Lady Tigers with five other regulars at .323 or better, and Stickrod has 15 home runs and 70 RBIs while Plese has 50 RBIs and Courtney Styles has 47. Sharlene Godoy heads a five-pitcher staff with a 16-4 record and a 1.82 ERA; Hanna Manley is 14-3 with a 2.09.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress at rbush@timesfreepress.com.