After being taken to the eighth inning for two one-run wins Friday in the Chattanooga Spring Classic at Warner Park, the host University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball Mocs took control early in their first game Saturday.
Really early. Total control.
But that did not extend to their second game of the day.
UTC scored 13 runs in the first inning of what became a mercy-rule 14-0 win over Detroit Mercy but followed that with a 10-inning 6-2 loss to UT-Martin. That dropped the Mocs to 8-1 for the season with two more games scheduled today, weather permitting.
Jesslyn Stockard had two two-run singles in the 13-run opening outburst, which set a program record for one inning. She was 3-for-3 in the five-inning game.
The onslaught started with two walks and an error. Anyssa Robles singled in the first run, and Criket Blanco singled in another. Later in the inning Blanco doubled a run home before Stockard singled in runs 12 and 13. Sam Taylor and J.J. Hamill had two-run doubles.
Kailey Palazzola took advantage of the early support and pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts.
Sophomore Cori Jennings pitched all 10 innings against UT-Martin (6-3) and gave up 15 hits, while the Mocs committed four errors. Two Skyhawks errors allowed UTC to tie the game at 2 in the bottom of the sixth, but the Mocs gave back with three misplays after a leadoff single by Katie Warrick in the 10th, and two-out singles by Carly Gonzales and Alli Fulcher led to the sixth run.
Warrick, Gonzales and Fulcher each had three hits in the game, Fulcher with two RBIs. Ashley Conner was 3-for-4 for UTC, but no other Moc had two hits. J.J. Hamill homered in the third inning off Brooke Kennedy, who struck out nine batters in her 10-inning eight-hitter.
"We played 15 innings and scored 13 runs in the first inning and in the other 14 we scored only three runs," UTC coach Frank Reed said Saturday night. "You've got a pretty good idea you're not going to win when you score only three runs in 14 innings. And couple that with errors, it makes it really hard.
"But we had a chance to win it in the seventh, a chance to win it in the eighth and another chance to win it in the ninth. We had runners on and just did not get it done. But we knew we weren't going to go undefeated."