UTC’s Aly Walker (11) scores on Emma Sturdivant’s home run during the Mocs’ SoCon softball tournament win against Furman on Wednesday at Frost Stadium. In a 3-1 win against UNCG on Friday, Walker hit a two-run homer.With two outs, a runner on and her team down a run in the sixth inning of the Southern Conference softball tournament’s winners-bracket final Friday, Aly Walker went to the plate and noticed her coach heading toward her.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Frank Reed just wanted to reinforce what everyone at Jim Frost Stadium already knew. After the quick pep talk, the senior outfielder popped a two-run home run to center field to lead the Mocs to a 3-1 victory over UNC Greensboro and into Saturday’s title round.
Third-seeded UTC (36-14) will face the top-seeded Spartans (31-22) at 1 p.m., with the Mocs needing one more win for the program’s 14th tournament championship. UNCG, which would need to beat UTC twice to win the title, advanced to Saturday’s play with a 9-7 victory over Mercer in the losers-bracket final late Friday afternoon. In losers-bracket games earlier in the day, the fourth-seeded Bears eliminated No. 7 seed Western Carolina, 7-4, and No. 5 seed East Tennessee State, 6-1.
UTC is in prime position thanks to Walker playing a familiar role – after a reminder of her capabilities.
“I was not going to call timeout with her, but I felt I had to say something,” Reed said of his chat with Walker. “I said, ‘Look, you led this conference in hitting for three years, there’s no reason you can’t put something hard into play right here. Lay off the riseball, find something down and in and something you can drive.’
“She said OK, and that’s what she did.”
The Mocs had been stymied to that point by UNCG pitcher Stephanie Bryden on one hit and one walk with six strikeouts. With one out in the top of the sixth, UTC’s Emily Coltharp reached on an error when her fly ball went off the glove of left fielder Katie Stettler.
Bryden got Hayleigh Weissenbach to fly out to center before Walker stepped in and took a 2-1 fastball deep.
“I knew she had been throwing a lot of up-spin, so I was trying to just stay on top of it,” Walker said. “Honestly, I thought it was a popup to center field, but it kept on going.”
The Mocs, who beat the Spartans for the first time this year after three-regular season losses to them, added an insurance run in the seventh when Williamson doubled to lead off the inning, was sacrificed to third and brought home on pinch-hitter Cameren Swafford’s sacrifice fly.
Celie Hudson overcame another shaky start to earn her 15th win this season, allowing four hits and striking out six while stranding nine runners. UNCG scored in the second inning on a two-out double from Melanie Darges and Monica Pepe’s RBI single.
“I was considering starting somebody else today, but once she settles down she’s hard to beat,” Reed said of his junior ace, “and before you know it you’re in the seventh inning and she’s in control. She really battled today.”
UTC will now hope forecast inclement weather this weekend doesn’t force a cancellation of the title round and leave the conference’s automatic NCAA regional bid to be decided off the field.
“They are talking about scenarios, and if it’s rained out, the top seed goes,” Reed said. “Since we are in the championship bracket, we could win the tournament and they would go to the regional. There’s no reason we can’t go to Sunday, though, if we need to, especially if we are down to two teams.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.