BOONE, N.C. — The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team maintained its lead in the Southern Conference regular-season race Saturday with a rainy-day doubleheader split at Appalachian State.
UTC won 3-1 before losing 2-0. Second-place Elon also split in its doubleheader against Samford to keep the Lady Mocs (34-13, 14-3) three games ahead in losses.
Coach Frank Reed mixed up the batting order against Appalachian State (23-21, 8-11), moving freshman first baseman Kasey Tydingco to second and dropping Kaiti Kelley and Jessica Traxler to the bottom of the order.
“I like Kasey at two because she provides a little bit more pop there,” Reed said. “Kasey came up in a couple of times and had opportunities to drive in some runs and did a good job of hitting the ball.”
In the first game, UTC fell behind 1-0 but took the lead with three runs in the top of the third inning. Kelley led off with a single and scored on a single by Traxler. The Lady Mocs then loaded the bases and scored two more runs when Tydingco drew a walk, bringing in Brittany Eason, and Tia Blosser hit a sacrifice fly to score Traxler.
Junior pitcher Nikki Waters ran into trouble in the bottom of the third when Appalachian State loaded the bases with one out. Kandice Irwin came on in relief and struck out McKenzie Phillips and got Michelle Lighton to ground out.
“I kind of felt more comfortable because in the last game against Elon, I felt like I was not in my rhythm,” Irwin said. “We had a two-run lead, and I feel like with any of our pitchers as long as we have a lead we can hold them.”
Irwin (8-0) finished the game to earn the win, allowing three hits and no runs while striking out seven.
“Kandice pitched awesome,” Reed said. “She got us out of two innings where they were all over us and struck out seven. Normally Kandice is not a notorious strikeout pitcher, but she had a great outing today.”
The second game was a pitchers’ duel with UTC starter Brooke Loudermilk and ASU’s Hannah Dow allowing a combined five hits for the game. The game was scoreless into the bottom of the sixth, when the Mountaineers scored two runs when Blosser misplayed a ball hit by Phillips to score Megan Rembielak and Katie Boyd.