The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team has made a bad habit of falling behind teams early in games this season. The Mocs have also made a good habit of fighting back.
Sunday was just the latest example.
The Mocs trailed Evansville three times in the final game of their Frost Classic, but they rallied each time to force extra innings. In the eighth, Kacie Lynch hit a bloop single to left field, scoring Halie Williamson – who had started the bottom half of the inning on second base due to international tiebreaker rules – for a 6-5 victory at Frost Stadium.
UTC (7-7) plays 16 of its next 17 games on the road, starting with the Ole Miss Classic this weekend in Oxford, Miss. After a March 7 game at home against Belmont, the Mocs are in Clearwater, Fla., for 11 games in 10 days before starting Southern Conference play March 24 at home against Mercer.
Emma Sturdivant and Hayleigh Weissenbach had three hits each for the Mocs against Evansville (2-11), while Williamson had a game-tying home run – the first homer of the junior’s collegiate career – in the sixth.
Williamson finished 3-for-7 and scored three runs in the Mocs’ five games at the Frost Classic.
“People are coming off the bench. We’re contributing and playing as a team,” said Williamson, a former Boyd-Buchanan standout. “For me, I’m just seeing the ball better right now, getting more opportunities, more at-bats, and being able to focus better.
“This weekend sets us up to play well in Oxford. It sets us up to have more confidence going forward.”
The Mocs trailed 3-0 after an inning and 4-3 in the third, but coach Frank Reed gave the ball to freshman pitcher Allison Swinford in the fourth. The former Dalton High School standout allowed only one hit – an RBI single by Brittany Hay in the sixth – while working out of some jams, including the eighth, when she had one out and Deja Shelton on third. Swinford forced Bailee Boston into a groundout to third, then struck out Jaime Nurrenbern looking.
Sunday’s game was the fourth of five in which the Mocs have given up at least one first-inning run. They’re 3-2 in those games.
“We pulled out another one,” Reed said. “We’ve had to dig ourselves out of a hole. The pitchers are better are we better than week one? Yeah. Are we better than week two? Definitely.
“We’re not as polished as we need to be, but I guess we don’t have to be at this point. We just have to be as good as the tournament ball is and hopefully get better before conference.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.