Chattanooga State softball coach Beth Keylon-Randolph denied any sense of revenge or atonement, but her Lady Tigers clearly were more ready to play than visiting Motlow State in their TCCAA doubleheader Friday.
The Lady Tigers won 11-2 in five innings and 9-1 in six against the program that ended their run of 15 consecutive state/region championships last spring. Chattanooga State went 60-9 but sat home while the Lady Bucks finished a 40-16 season at the NJCAA Division I national tournament in St. George, Utah.
"We don't even look it at like redemption. It's a new year and new players," Keylon-Randolph said after Friday's run-rule sweep. "We just stress playing the game as hard as we can no matter the situation."
Many of the players are not new, however.
"The girls were excited to play them. They were looking forward to it, with the way it ended last year," Keylon-Randolph admitted. "But we'll take wins any way we can get them."
While Chattanooga State improved to 37-10 overall and 8-0 in the TCCAA, Motlow dropped to 18-10 and 4-2. The Lady Bucks returned most of their squad from 2009, but the players they lost were crucial ones.
"Key, key players," Motlow coach Gary Barfield said Friday. "And we are just not playing well right now. But I have to give Chatt a lot of credit. They've got a great team and they played well. But we were on our heels today and gave them a lot of runs."
Barfield was talking more about potential plays not made than actual errors. Returning from a tough set of games in Seminole, Okla., where first baseman Whitney Galloway dislocated a thumb and backup left fielder Lauren Stoker tore a knee ligament, the Lady Tigers were more opportunistic than awesome.
After Motlow scored the day's first run, Chattanooga State got five on two hits in the bottom of the third inning and added three runs on two hits in each of its next two at-bats. Kendall Bruning, who brought home the go-ahead score with a grounder to second, ended game one with a three-run homer just beyond the left fielder's reach and the fence.
Tabita McNew, who began the third-inning burst with a walk, singled with one out in the fifth and stole second, and Laura Curtis worked a two-out walk with nearly double-digit fouls. Haley Workman, who pitched a three-hitter, contributed an RBI double and a sacrifice fly, and Leah Kelley had a sacrifice-bunt RBI and a run-scoring double.
Bruning got the pitching win in the second game, with two innings of one-hit relief from Adrienne Lamberson.
McNew had two bunt hits that led to scores in that game, when the Lady Tigers swelled a 2-1 margin with a five-hit, five-run fourth inning featuring an RBI liner off the third baseman's glove by Kaela Jackson and two-run singles by Curtis and Workman. In the sixth, Curtis walked, Kelley singled sharply to right center, Workman singled in a run and Brittany Cooley ended the game with a groundout RBI.