Junior Ashley Conner batted in three runs with two homers and made a superb defensive play that became enormous as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team salvaged a 1-1 split Friday in the opening day of the Frost Classic.
The Mocs won 5-3 over Northwestern State from Louisiana after losing 8-7 in eight innings to the Fairleigh Dickinson team they defeated 6-4 two weeks ago in Clermont, Fla.
Freshman left-hander Payten Price pitched the last three innings of the loss, giving up only one hit, and went six innings for the win in a gutty performance against the Demons, who are coached by Donald Pickett, a former assistant to UTC coach Frank Reed.
Price allowed 10 hits and five walks against Northwestern State (6-6-1) but repeatedly got out of trouble. And Alex Connell got the last three outs after Price loaded the bases with two singles sandwiching a walk in the top of the seventh. The Demons got only one run on a sacrifice fly in that threat.
In the fifth they followed second baseman Conner's diving stop and throw-out with three hits, including a double by Micayla Sorosiak (who was 3-for-4), but got only one run before freshman Hayleigh Weissenbach caught a fly in right center and doubled up a runner with a no-bounce throw to catcher Amanda Beltran.
That left UTC ahead 3-2, and Conner promptly made it 4-2 with her second home run of the game. That was a liner to left center field. The first one was a high shot to left with two outs in the first inning, with J.J. Hamill on second base, and Jesslyn Stockard - returning from back issues - followed a Beltran walk with an RBI shot off the fence in center.
Brook Womack homered as a pinch hitter in the sixth, and Katy Richardson was 2-for-2 in the win for UTC (3-7), which plays Western Michigan at 1:30 and UT-Martin at 4 today and Saint Louis at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Hamill was 2-for-2 with a homer, two RBIs and two runs scored against Fairleigh Dickinson, and Beltran hit a two-run homer. Conner was 1-for-3 and scored twice.
Maddy Adams, the infielder who has been pressed into pitching duty, made her first collegiate start in the circle and didn't get out of the 1-6 Knights' six-run third inning, but the Mocs matched them at 6 and then at 7 before falling in the eighth.
"We've got a tough pitching situation," said Reed, not knowing when Celie Hudson will be available but hoping it's in time for the Southern Conference part of the schedule, "but Payten pitched a good game and our walk-on got three big outs with the bases loaded. We're hitting the ball pretty well and scoring some runs and making some plays on defense."
Halie Williamson played second in the first game for UTC and made a nifty play on a pop-up for a double play.
- At Boaz, Ala., Chattanooga State edged host Snead State 11-9 and lost 4-0 to Itawamba from Mississippi.
Kaleigh Wynne was 3-for-3 with two home runs, a double and eight RBIs against Snead and got the pitching win with 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief, and she pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts in the loss. Devan Brown and Alaeni Ray had two hits each against Snead for the Lady Tigers (10-4), and Aimie Davidson had an RBI double.
- At Gainesville, Ga., on Thursday, Kelsey Payne from East Hamilton was 2-for-3 in Brenau's 2-0 win over Truett-McConnell and scored a run in an 8-2 loss in the second game.