The top-seeded University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team got a win in its first game of the Southern Conference tournament Thursday, scoring a combined nine runs in the third and fourth innings to defeat Mercer 10-1 in five innings in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Mocs — looking for their second NCAA tournament berth in three seasons and 16th overall — play again at 10 a.m. Friday against the winner of third-seeded Samford vs. second-seeded UNC Greensboro. If UTC wins that game, it would just take one win on Saturday in the double-elimination tournament to clinch the title.
UTC built a 1-0 edge in the bottom of the first on a run-scoring single by Kendall Forsythe, who also had a three-run home run in the bottom of the third and an RBI single in the fourth. Silverdale Baptist Academy alum Kaili Phillips had a pair of hits and scored twice, while Anna Dovey came in and had a pinch-hit two-run double in the fourth to put the Mocs up 10-0.
Camryn Cernuto and Addy Keylon, an Ooltewah native, also scored twice.
Peja Goold, the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year, got the win by striking out eight and allowing just one run in the fifth to improve to 9-3 on the year.