The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team is hitting on all cylinders heading into a big weekend of games at the Bulldog Invitational in Athens, Ga.
The Lady Mocs (12-3) go into this morning’s game against Indiana on an 11-game winning streak, including a 5-0 run at home last weekend in the Frost Classic. The team is off to its best start since opening the 1999 season 12-3 as well.
UTC is batting .322 as a team with 16 home runs. Senior third baseman Tiffany Baker has a team-best average of .465 after a strong showing this past weekend.
Coach Frank Reed is pleased with the start but wants to see the Lady Mocs continue to get better.
“Even with the mistakes we’ve made, we’re so much further along than we were at this time last year and with teams we’ve had in the past,” Reed said Sunday after UTC’s 8-2 win over UT-Martin. “It’s sort of a Catch-22 because we like where we are but we’re not happy because we’ve set our goals so much higher.”
Junior Michelle Fuzzard has a 6-1 pitching record, and senior Kandice Irwin has a 4-1 record and four saves with a 1.43 earned run average.
Fuzzard leads the team with 20 RBIs, and she and Della Harrison each has four home runs to lead the team, which has scored in double figures in five of its 15 games.
“It’s a fun team to watch,” Reed said. “There’s a lot of fans coming out, a lot of media coming out and a lot of people talking about us, and that’s what we want. So hopefully we’ll continue to play well.”
UTC will face Campbell and James Madison on Saturday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The Lady Mocs will wrap up the weekend Sunday with another game against Campbell before taking on the host Lady Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 1 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll.
“I know we won’t go in there afraid to play anybody,” Reed said. “We can go in there and play well and win some big games. I think we’re more prepared this weekend than we were the first weekend [of the season]. I think we’re about to figure out who we are and what we can accomplish.”