TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Because her college softball career started with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, former Silverdale Baptist Academy standout Kaili Phillips was able to keep emphatically encouraging her University of Tennessee at Chattanooga teammates that Friday’s NCAA regional matchup against sixth-seeded Alabama was “just another game.”
The Mocs apparently got the message, because it didn’t take them long to look like they belonged.
Through three innings, former Central High School standout Brooke Parrott was pitching a no-hitter against the Southeastern Conference’s Crimson Tide, who are regulars at the Women’s College World Series. The Mocs were swinging the bats well, too, getting four hits in that same span and putting runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the fourth.
But then Alabama put in ace Montana Fouts, who closed the door on what proved to be the Mocs’ best chance to score. And in the bottom half of the fourth, Bailey Dowling sent Parrott’s fourth pitch of the inning over the left-field wall at Rhoads Stadium, the first domino in a 3-0 victory for the Tide.
“We settled in early,” Parrott said. “Usually after that first inning is over with, we all settle in – especially me as a pitcher. I was constantly telling myself that this was just another game, and I was just trying to treat it like that.”