Roommates Haley Workman and Kendall Bruning have different pitching styles but very similar numbers for the Chattanooga State softball team.
They also have this in common: They were the primary pitchers last year for the first Lady Tigers who did not win the NJCAA Region VII championship.
Chattanooga State went 60-9 in 2009 but had its run of 15 consecutive region titles and 14 straight trips to the NJCAA Division I national tournament stopped by Motlow State, which upset the Lady Tigers in the winners-bracket final, lost 3-0 to Workman in the first championship matchup but then won 4-3 for the trip to Utah.
Bruning was the pitcher when Motlow got two runs in the seventh inning for the stunning victory, and she admitted Friday that the memory has remained. Although the Lady Tigers whipped Motlow 11-2 and 9-1 when the teams met again five weeks ago, it's tournament time again and only the winner advances.
Top-seeded Chattanooga State plays today at 1 p.m. EDT in Dyersburg, Tenn., against Southwest Tennessee, which beat Roane State 5-0 on Friday. The nationally seventh-ranked Lady Tigers are 47-12 overall and finished 17-1 in league play, losing 8-7 with six errors at Volunteer State in their final game.
That was on April 16, and the Lady Tigers have done nothing but practice and scrimmage each other since then.
"We've been hitting live a lot (instead of off coach Beth Keylon-Randolph)," Bruning said.
"And doing tons of defense," Workman said.
The two sophomore pitchers agreed that the fielding alignment that underwent a lot of changes this school year, with some players leaving and others being injured -- and basketball players pulled in to serve as backups -- seems at its best going into postseason play.
"We're very prepared coming into the tournament," Bruning said. "We feel we are more prepared than we have been all season. We've been practicing hard every day and busting our tails like it was August again."
Hard-hitting sophomore first baseman Whitney Galloway has returned to action after a dislocated thumb and is getting her timing back.
Keylon-Randolph agreed that the time off has been good in several ways.
"It's given us time to rest and recover," she said. "We had to find new (defensive) homes for everybody, and this gave us a chance to let them get comfortable in their new homes. In that last game we made quite a few errors we usually don't make, but we've used this time well with a lot of repetitions.
"Motivation for the girls who are here has not been an issue all year. We really feel like we owe ourselves, not Motlow or Vol or any other team. We feel if we do our job we can win."
Bruning, a former Ridgeland High School star, has pitched 156 1/3 innings with a 22-5 record, a 1.03 earned run average and 215 strikeouts. Workman, who is from Easley, S.C., has pitched 161 2/3 innings with 248 strikeouts, a 24-5 mark and a 1.645 ERA.
"They're both No. 1 pitchers. It's rare that you have a team with two No. 1s," Keylon-Randolph said. "It's weird how similar they are. They're different but have the same effect. Kendall throws hard and her best pitch is a drop ball. Haley doesn't throw as hard but has tremendous movement, and her rise ball is her best pitch."
Then there's freshman Adrienne Lamberson from GPS. Used mostly in late innings, she has a 1.672 ERA.
"Adrienne's done an outstanding job -- filling innings, saving games, changing situations with her junk ball," Keylon-Randolph said. "She's got a change that's one of the best I've ever seen -- it's nasty -- and everything she throws has movement."
Bruning is batting .438 with 20 home runs, 18 doubles, 71 RBIs and 54 runs scored, while Workman -- whose batting really picked up late in the season -- has a .329 average with nine homers and 45 RBIs.
Galloway has a .509 average and Kaela Jackson is hitting .345 with 18 homers, 59 RBIs and 57 runs. Laura Curtis and Leah Kelley are batting .364 and .353 with 46 and 61 RBIs and 54 and 55 runs, and Tabitha McNew is hitting .396 with 66 runs. Brittany Cooley and Alex Buffington are batting .351 and .307.