Ashley ConnerCoach Frank Reed clearly has addressed the main recent shortcoming of his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team.
Faced with a lack of pitching depth and experience and then a series of medical issues to the pitchers the Mocs had, the longtime target program of the Southern Conference stumbled to a 15-38 record in 2017 with only four wins in 18 conference games. That followed a 7-11 SoCon record for a 2016 team that went 30-29 with pitching problems also.
This year the Mocs have six pitchers, and all have strengths that can help, Reed and his veteran players said Saturday morning at the team's annual fundraising breakfast.
Sophomore Celie Hudson from Paris, Tenn., a potential ace last year who was unavailable until deep into the season because of back problems, was doing well along with the team by the conference tournament and is back with an improved conditioning program. Then there are junior Heidi Hall, a transfer from Oregon State, and promising freshmen Allison Swinford from Dalton and Alexa Veamoi from Athens, Ga.
Off-speed specialist Paige Peterson from California and left-hander Michayla Kelly-Harvey from Idaho can provide helpful changes of pace and style, Reed said.
"They're all very close," said senior shortstop J.J. Hamill from Gordon Lee.
"I've been catching some bullpen (pitching sessions), and I can tell you each of them is going to bring something different to help us," said the other fourth-year Moc, second baseman Ashley Conner from Northwest Whitfield.
The two acknowledged that last year's pitching woes also negatively affected the team's batting and defense, as the Mocs tried to do too much to compensate. But even with four players in concusssion protocol from two car wrecks, this year's bunch has more experience and more options.
Starters return at every fielding position except first base, with senior Brook Womack - a Central High graduate who played her first two college seasons at Southern Illinois - at third base, junior Halie Williamson from Boyd-Buchanan competing with Conner at second and for designated-player duty, junior Amanda Beltran at catcher and the 2017 SoCon all-freshmen trio of Hayleigh Weissenbach, Aly Walker and Amy Lewis in the outfield with junior Alyssa Coppinger from Whitwell.
But every position has at least one serious challenger to the incumbent, Conner pointed out. Freshman Lexee Lamoree from Farragut has been impressive behind the plate, for example, and juniors Emma Sturdivant and Morgan Kazerooni are two good candidates at first. Kazerooni sat out last year as a transfer and Sturdivant is recovering from an injury.
"Everybody has somebody pushing them, so practices have been more intense and loud," Conner said.
The season starts Feb. 9-11 at the Louisiana-Monroe tournament, and season tickets are on sale through GoMocs.com and 266-MOCS.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com.