The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had to defeat a trio of opponents in Thursday's 2-1 winners-bracket semifinal victory against Western Carolina in the Southern Conference softball tournament at Jim Frost Stadium.
The No. 7-seeded Catamounts were the main focus, obviously, but the Mocs also were fighting their own overaggressive approach at the plate and the threat of inclement weather causing a delay or postponement.
In the end, thanks to the resurgent pitching of senior Celie Hudson and a timely hit from freshman Emily Coltharp, third-seeded UTC advanced and will face top-seeded UNC Greensboro in Friday's winners-bracket final, tentatively set for 11:30 a.m. Earlier Thursday, the Spartans rolled past fifth-seeded East Tennessee State University, 9-1, to improve to 31-21.
In the day's first game, a losers-bracket contest, second-seeded Samford stayed alive with a 7-0 win over Furman, eliminating the sixth-seeded Paladins. Inclement weather delayed Thursday's final two losers-bracket games - ETSU versus Samford and fourth-seeded Mercer versus Western Carolina.
The original plan was to play the games simultaneously Thursday night at 7:30, with one game at Frost and the other at another field at Warner Park. However, playing conditions at Warner forced the postponement of the Mercer-Western Carolina game until 9 a.m. Friday at Frost.
In the game that was completed, ETSU eliminated Samford, scoring three runs in the eighth inning to win 5-2.
UTC's Hudson, who pitched a six-hitter and struck out four batters while earning her 14th win this season, had her own inner struggles. She was lifted after just three innings in Wednesday's first-round game against Furman, and the SoCon's pitcher of the year struggled with location again early against the Catamounts before some advice from pitching coach Megan Betsa helped turn her around.
"Today started a little rough, too," Hudson said. "My pitches weren't great, and Megan got on me a little bit. She said I looked tight and I was pressing, so I really worked through that. The later innings were definitely better for me. My defense bailed me out a couple of times when I wasn't throwing my best, and then I picked it up a little."
Mocs coach Frank Reed elected to stay with the junior despite Hudson allowing a pair of first-inning singles, getting an out at the fence in the second and giving up Madison Armstrong's solo homer in the third. Hudson allowed only two hits the rest of the way, working out of a two-on, two-out jam in the seventh to seal it.
"She sometimes has slow starts, and I still don't think she is where she needs to be, but she got some shutout innings when we needed them," Reed said of his ace. "The fact we only backed her up with two runs put it within one swing, and that's not a situation we want to be."
The Mocs (35-14) gave Hudson all the runs she would need in the second inning when Coltharp slapped a line drive that ticked off the glove of diving third baseman Armstrong and into left field, scoring two.
UTC managed just one more hit and often swung at early pitches against Western Carolina's Shaina Reed, who needed only 88 pitches to go six innings and allowed only five hits.
"What hurts us all is we are the aggressive team. We're not waiting and trying to get into deep counts," Frank Reed said. "We want them to be aggressive, but there are times you want them to back off a bit. There's a fine line between being too aggressive and not aggressive enough, and we struggle with it at times."
UTC will try to defeat UNCG for the first time this season after being swept in three games during the regular season.
"Honestly, we can't treat it like a championship game or we will all press like I did today," Hudson said. "But we're ready. They beat us three times in the regular season and shouldn't have. It's our turn."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.