Brooke Parrott never thought the day would come that she would find herself nervous in the softball circle.
A four-time Times Free Press Best of Preps selection that won 71 games at Central High School and struck out over 1,000 people, pitching was what she had always done.
Yet there she stood at the beginning of the 2021 season as a new member of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team - having just played two seasons at Chattanooga State - with the new feeling of never having competed against Division I competition.
"I was nervous to even go into a game," she said earlier this week. "It affected the movement of my pitches because I was so shaky, and I was scared to throw strikes at the beginning of the year."
It showed in her first few outings. She gave up five runs - four earned - in a loss to Western Kentucky. Walked five batters against Indiana State, then gave up six more runs against Kennesaw State. She wasn't an overpowering pitcher as it was, but she was suddenly unable to get people out.
But under the guidance of the rest of the UTC pitching staff as well as pitching coach Cheyanne Tarango, who helped Tennessee to three Women's College World Series appearances during her playing career before pitching professionally for five seasons, Parrott started to settle in. The results haven't always been there, which could also be said for a UTC team that is 10-21 on the year, but she's settling in.
So when Parrott took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning against Auburn on Wednesday, if people were holding their breath, they would have been justified. Only Parrott - and the Mocs - finished the job, defeating the Tigers for the program's first win over a Southeastern Conference school since beating Arkansas 7-3 in February of 2015. Parrott allowed just two hits. She didn't strike anyone out, but she only walked one and the defense got her out of some bad situations to claim her fourth win of the year.
"We were trying to get her back into it, and she started gradually getting back into a little bit of a turnaround," UTC head coach Frank Reed said. "When we got to (East Tennessee State) and swept that series, you could see her getting stronger and stronger and stronger."
The Auburn game showed what this team is capable of. Now it's time to build on it.
"Just gotta focus on putting everything together," Parrott said. "Hitting, pitching, we did it all (that) game, and I think we need to continue doing that for the next two weekends."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.