UTC Mocs logoThe University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team dropped two games in the opening day of the National Training Center Invitational on Friday in Clermont, Fla.
The Mocs (4-3) squandered a lead with a disastrous seventh inning in a 9-5 loss to UMass-Lowell and later fell 6-1 to 18th-ranked Missouri.
Against UMass-Lowell, UTC scored quickly with an RBI double by Alyssa Taylor in the first inning and added to the lead with a two-run homer by Sarah Beth Roberts in the third. Catcher Anyssa Robles knocked in single runs in the fourth and sixth, and the Mocs were ahead 5-3 heading to the final inning.
Senior pitcher Taylor Deason, who had been solid most of the game and finished with 10 strikeouts, was hurt in the seventh by three UTC errors. She allowed six unearned runs on two hits and took the loss.
Sam Taylor went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, and Roberts and Marina Wilkerson each had two hits.
Against Missouri, UTC managed an unearned run in the top of the second inning, when Nicole Osterman walked and scored thanks to a pair of Tigers errors. Criket Blanco and Robles each had two hits, but freshman pitcher Cori Jennings allowed Missouri to score six runs on nine hits and eight walks over six innings.
UTC will be back in action today with games against Cleveland State and Missouri-Kansas City.