With an all-new set of assistants, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball coach Frank Reed has dubbed the 2011 season “the year of change.”
One big change is that the January injury report on his pitchers is that they’re all healthy, including Michelle Fuzzard back at “100 percent” from a knee ligament tear.
Fuzzard, also valuable as a first baseman and one of the Lady Mocs’ top hitters, is getting an extra year of eligibility after being injured early in the 2010 season, so she’s a junior working with seniors Nikki Waters and Kandice Irwin and freshman walk-on Caroline Curran.
“Michelle was swinging the bat real well from the start,” Reed said Saturday morning at the team’s fundraiser breakfast at the Northgate Applebee’s, “and she’s throwing well now, too. She’s getting her velocity back.”
“I never had great velocity anyway,” Fuzzard said, “so getting my spin back was the main thing. Getting the rise ball back where I wanted it was the last thing, and I feel pretty good now.”