The East Tennessee State University softball team will be in a special place for coach Brad Iwin today - literally and figuratively.
The Buccaneers will be in Jim Frost Stadium in Chattanooga to play for the Southern Conference tournament championship. They reached that point by edging Mercer 4-3 in nine innings on Friday.
The Johnson City team will have two chances to win one game and represent the conference in an NCAA Division I regional. ETSU will face Samford at 1 p.m.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs gave fifth seed Mercer another 4-3 loss in the losers-bracket final Friday night after beating top seed UNC Greensboro 3-1.
Irwin, a 1992 Tyner graduate with two degrees from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was part of the UTC staff for current Tennessee coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly as a student in the late 1990s, and he was current Mocs coach Frank Reed's top assistant from 2006 until becoming ETSU's head coach in 2010. In between he coached at Hixson High School for a year and worked as an assistant for Emily Russell at Lee University during a span that included two NAIA national-tournament appearances and one season with a 55-14 record.
In this SoCon tournament Irwin's third-seeded Bucs (28-24) beat Western Carolina 7-0 and nipped UTC 1-0 leading into Friday's winners-bracket final, when the Bucs led 3-1 before Mercer (26-31) tied the score on Quirisa Mauga's two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth.
But pitcher Madison Ogle got the Bears out one-two-three in the seventh and eighth innings, and ETSU catcher Kylie Toler drew a two-out walk and scored on Malloree Schurr's double off the fence in the top of the ninth. When Ogle walked Mercer's No. 3 batter Taylor Rodgers in the bottom of the inning, Irwin brought in Lindsey Fadnek to pitch, and she got Mauga to foul out and struck out the last two batters.
"The girls just kept fighting. They haven't given up all year," Irwin said.
Toler and Nikki Grupp each scored two runs for ETSU. Grupp was 1-for-1 with a first-inning homer. Taylor Miller matched Mauga in going 2-for-4 for Mercer, Mauga scoring twice and Taylor once.
ETSU has assured its first winning record under Irwin. The Bucs were 20-22 last year, 9-9 in conference play. Their season ended with a 6-3 loss to UTC in the SoCon tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
This year they went into the final day of the regular season with a chance to be the top seed in the tournament.
"Last year was our turnaround year, I think," said Irwin, now 42. "It feels like we've been in a bazillion one-run, close games, but the girls kept working and I'm so glad for them that we're where we are today. I wanted this so much for them.
"(ETSU officials) have been incredibly patient with me. My first three years we were brutally bad," he added. "I wanted to build a program, but I wanted to build it the right way. I didn't want to run players off. The administration has been behind me all the way."
ETSU was in the Atlantic Sun Conference when he took the job, and he's delighted about the return to the SoCon.
"I grew up in the SoCon," Irwin said.
He has a handful of Chattanooga-area players on his roster, including regular starters Mykeah Johnson in center field and leading off the batting order and Kelsey Chernak at shortstop.
"Mykeah and Kelsey are in that group of seniors - well, Kelsey redshirted last year with an injury, but she's been in the program four years - that have meant so much," Irwin said. "We won three conference games their freshman year, and now we're playing for a conference championship.
"Mykeah has had a very good year. She's a tremendous player and a tremendous leader."
Today can add to Irwin's affection for his former ballpark.
"Frost Stadium has a special place in my heart anyway," he said. "I spent so many, many years here. Frost Stadium is a special, special place, and if we get one more win here tomorrow, it will be even more special."