The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team won 4-2 and lost 2-1 in its Southern Conference doubleheader Saturday at Mercer.
Clinching series superiority with their second straight 4-2 win featuring a four-run inning, the Mocs (25-12, 4-5) got a pinch-hit home run by Morgan Kazerooni and a three-run blast by Aly Walker in the fifth. Walker’s homer followed a double by Alyssa Coppinger and a single by Emily Coltharp and put Celie Hudson in position for the pitching win with a save for Allison Swinford.
Hudson (8-8) struck out six batters in six innings. Freshman Mariah Ramirez (11-1) then pitched a two-hitter for UTC but took her first college loss thanks to an unearned run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Walker doubled in the fourth, and pinch runner Taylor Chadwick moved around on Emma Sturdivant’s sacrifice bunt and Halie Williamson’s tying groundout. Sturdivant was 2-for-2.
» Chattanooga State 9-9, Columbia State 4-6: At Chattanooga State, the nationally ninth-ranked Lady Tigers followed Friday’s 7-5 win and 9-3 loss with a Saturday sweep that made them 34-6, 19-3 in TCCAA play. Rilee King pitched a five-hitter with six strikeouts, and Brooke Parrott followed with a seven-strikeout game, and Lauren Hamby went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run in game one and hit a two-run homer in the finale.