What has been virtually an annual tradition since NJCAA Region VII started holding softball tournaments continued Saturday as Chattanooga State celebrated another TCCAA/region title.
But even though the top-seeded Lady Tigers went through without a loss on their home field, the championship game was nerve-racking to the very end. They held off Volunteer State 10-8 but with Lady Pioneers on every base as starting pitcher Sharlene Godoy re-entered the game and struck out two batters to end it.
The Chattanooga State baseball team got by Vol State in a game ending after midnight, 10-4 with a six-run 10th inning, and plays for a region championship of its own at 3 p.m. today — having to lose twice to the survivor of the noon game between Dyersburg State and Walters State. Dyersburg upset the nationally eight-ranked Senators 8-6 on Saturday.
“It was sticky from start to finish,” third-year Chattanooga State coach Blythe Golden said of the softball final, which got her team a repeat bid to the national tournament starting May 13 in St. George, Utah.
The Lady Tigers finished third there last year.
“I commend Vol State for doing what they did,” Golden said. “They came out of the losers bracket (where they pulled out a nine-inning win Friday) and run-ruled Walters State and then gave us a run for our money. They had a lot of fight, and I respect them.”
After beating second-seeded Walters 13-2 in five innings, the fourth-seeded Lady Pioneers jumped on the top seeds with a grand slam by Ginny Clayborne in the bottom of the first inning — following three singles. But Chattanooga State (45-11) answered with a three-run homer by shortstop Dana Horgan in the top of the second, following hits by Courtney Styles and Izzy McCurry.
Then when Vol got those three right back in the bottom of the second, helped by a two-out error on Godoy, the Lady Tigers stubbornly scored five runs with RBI extra-base hits by Lindsey Stickrod (homer), Styles and Sydney Sloan — following singles by Shannon Plese and Katy Richardson — and Courtney Crawford being hit by a pitch for an RBI after two walks behind Sloan’s double.
The Lady Pioneers tied the score at 8 in their next at-bat but never went ahead again, and Chattanooga State had a two-run fifth for what became the final margin.
Hanna Manley, the Lady Tigers’ other veteran pitcher besides Godoy, relieved her in the second inning and held the Lady Pioneers in check, but with baserunners almost every inning. When a hit batter and two one-out walks put the potential winning run on base, Golden went back to Godoy, who came through big-time with strikeouts of Nos. 2 and 3 batters Lauren Payne and Sydney Shoulders.
“I did really enjoy that — a lot,” Godoy said. “I like pitching in that type situation. The beginning of the game was not my best, and I liked getting the chance to do better. I’m happy they trusted me to come back in.”
Said Golden: “I was really confident when we put back in. That’s her moment. She really shines in situations like that, and she had the look that told me she was ready.
“Hanna kept us in the game, but she’s had better days, too. She got behind in counts too much. We knew we were going to hit. That was never a question. And offensively we stepped up and won the ballgame.”
Shoulders had two hits and three RBIs, Payne was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored and Kim Borowski was 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBIs as Vol State emphatically eliminated Walters State. Erin Roper was 3-for-3 and scored one of the Lady Senators’ two runs.
Walters State athletic director Foster Chason helped in the presentations of trophies to the top two teams — on the campus where he worked for 30 years before moving to the Morristown school a decade ago. He is the TCCAA’s athletic directors’ chair.
In the ultra-late baseball game Saturday night, David Mayo went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and pitched the final two outs for Chattanooga State (30-10). Michael Halley was 3-for-5 with an RBI triple in the first inning, and Michael Goss had two hits and three RBIs for the Tigers.
Cleveland State’s baseball Cougars fought back from a 10-2 deficit before falling 11-10 against Vol State in the afternoon. The eighth-seeded Cougars (24-22) scored three runs in the seventh inning and four in the ninth to get close.
Wright Hackett was 3-for-6 with two triples and four RBIs, Connor Coakley was 4-for-4 with two runs, Janson Roberson had two hits and three runs scored and Blake Thomas was 2-for-2 with three runs for Cleveland State. Gunner Osborne and Grant Hawkins each was 3-for-4 with three and two RBIs for the Pioneers.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.