Chattanooga State softball coach Beth Keylon-RandolphFAST FACTS
• TCCAA/NJCAA Region VIIbaseball & softball tournaments• $7 per day ($4 students); $20 tournament pass (covers both sports)• All games on Ustream.tv through Chattanooga State website
This may be Chattanooga State’s best softball team yet — in nearly two decades of Region VII dominance and national contention. But whereas the Lady Tigers usually have been all alone from the region in the NJCAA Division I rankings, Volunteer State also was ranked when it beat them twice in last year’s regional and this year’s Lady Pioneers are ranked 15th with Walters State receiving Top 25 votes as well.
Chattanooga State is 52-4 and second in the country, after several weeks at No. 1. The Lady Tigers dropped a notch as a result of a split in their last TCCAA doubleheader of the season — losing 2-1 and winning 6-2 at Vol State (45-7), which lost and won a week later at Walters (43-5).
Today in the state/region tournament at Chattanooga State, the top-seeded hosts face Jackson State at noon, followed by Walters against Southwest Tennessee at 2 and Vol State against Motlow at 4. Fifth-seeded Cleveland State faces fourth seed Columbia State in the day’s first game at 10 a.m.
Jackson State beat Roane State 6-4 in the first play-in game Sunday as Tiffany Keck rapped a tiebreaking double to left field in the top of the seventh inning and scored on a single. Motlow scored six runs in the first inning for pitcher Roxanne Hillman in a 10-4 defeat of Dyersburg State.