The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team got the 2015 season off to a good start Friday with two wins to give coach Frank Reed his 500th victory with the Mocs.
UTC beat George Washington 4-2 and Evansville 5-3 in the opening day of the Plainsman Invitational in Auburn, Ala.
Against George Washington, UTC opened the scoring with a third-inning run by Sam Taylor and added three runs in the sixth. Taylor scored twice and Alyssa Taylor, Sarah Beth Roberts, Nicole Osterman and Criket Blanco each had an RBI in the win.
Senior Taylor Deason started and picked up the pitching victory, allowing no runs on two hits while striking out seven in 6 1/3 innings. Freshman Cori Jennings allowed GWU's two runs on a hit and two walks in the sixth inning before Deason returned to finish out the victory.
"With it being her first time out, you could see Taylor getting stronger," Reed said. "You want to see that your pitcher can go seven innings if you need them to. We didn't play perfect, but I think we only had one error in each game. So this is something that we can build on."
In the second game, freshman pitcher Kailey Palazzolo struggled early against Evansville, which led 3-0 in the middle of the third inning. But UTC rallied with a solo home run by third baseman Sarah Beth Roberts in the third, two runs in the fourth to tie the game and two runs in the third for the lead and winning margin.
Palazzolo settled down in the pitching circle after her early struggles and helped on offense with two hits, an RBI and a run scored. Roberts also had two hits and scored twice, and Blanco scored twice, was 1-for-1 at the plate and twice was hit by a pitch.
"They showed a lot of character," Reed said of the Mocs' comeback. "We got down with our freshman pitcher a little bit. She had a rough outing for a couple of innings, but then she came back strong in the latter part of the game and the kids rebounded with some runs. We did what we had to do to get a win."
UTC will be back in action today at Auburn with games against Appalachian State and Alabama-Birmingham.
Reed reached his milestone win at UTC at the start of his 14th season with the Mocs. He is 500-299 at UTC and has an overall college coaching record of 976-386, which includes his 10 seasons at Chattanooga State.
"Wins never get old," he said. "I've got a great group of kids this year, and I've gotten a few texts from some of our former players saying they wish they could have been here to experience this. And they've all been a part of it. I've had some great players and coaches along the way.
"I told (UTC athletic director) David Blackburn when he congratulated me that there's only one bad thing about it and that's that you've got to get old to get there."