Junior pitcher Brooke Parrott mentioned Saturday afternoon that there had been little belief even within the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball program that the Mocs were capable of winning the Southern Conference championship.
Why would anyone think otherwise?
The team dropped eight games in a row midway through the schedule, a losing streak that coincided with some individual player struggles. The ship had been righted with a three-game sweep of Western Carolina last weekend, which clinched the No. 3 seed at the SoCon tourney for the Mocs, but if UTC was able to get past those same Catamounts in its first tourney game in Greensboro, North Carolina, then UNC Greensboro and Samford – two teams that swept the Mocs in the regular season during that eight-game skid – loomed large ahead.
After getting past sixth-seeded Western Carolina 3-2 on Wednesday, the Mocs did beat both second-seeded Samford, 4-0 on Thursday, and No. 1 UNCG, 10-2 on Friday, to reach Saturday’s championship round. But there again were the top-seeded Spartans – they topped Samford in the tourney’s final elimination game Friday – ready to try to repeat as champions and needing two wins against UTC to do just that in the double-elimination format.
UNCG built a five-run advantage going into the top of the seventh inning Saturday and was three outs from a winner-take-all game. True to their late-season surge, though, the Mocs battled back again.