Junior pitcher Brooke Parrott mentioned Saturday afternoon that there had been little belief even within the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball program that the Mocs were capable of winning the Southern Conference championship.
Why would anyone think otherwise?
The team dropped eight games in a row midway through the schedule, a losing streak that coincided with some individual player struggles. The ship had been righted with a three-game sweep of Western Carolina last weekend, which clinched the No. 3 seed at the SoCon tourney for the Mocs, but if UTC was able to get past those same Catamounts in its first tourney game in Greensboro, North Carolina, then UNC Greensboro and Samford - two teams that swept the Mocs in the regular season during that eight-game skid - loomed large ahead.
After getting past sixth-seeded Western Carolina 3-2 on Wednesday, the Mocs did beat both second-seeded Samford, 4-0 on Thursday, and No. 1 UNCG, 10-2 on Friday, to reach Saturday's championship round. But there again were the top-seeded Spartans - they topped Samford in the tourney's final elimination game Friday - ready to try to repeat as champions and needing two wins against UTC to do just that in the double-elimination format.
UNCG built a five-run advantage going into the top of the seventh inning Saturday and was three outs from a winner-take-all game. True to their late-season surge, though, the Mocs battled back again.
A three-run homer by Heritage graduate Reagan Armour. A two-run homer by former Silverdale Baptist Academy standout Kaili Phillips to force an extra inning.
Then in the top of the eighth, it was former Ooltewah star Addison Keylon leading off and hitting the go-ahead bomb on a 2-2 count. Armour's third home run of the game came with two outs and made it 9-7, a final margin that would stand as Parrott (15-7) - who started, exited after giving up a leadoff triple in the fourth and reentered in the seventh - worked around a one-out walk and sealed the victory on a swinging strike.
And suddenly it didn't have to make sense, because the improbable had happened.
There's nothing new about UTC winning a SoCon title - this is the program's 15th overall - but the Mocs' earlier struggles this season seemed to indicate the wait for another would be extended. Now they're on the top of the league for the first time since 2019 (no SoCon title was awarded in 2020, when the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic) and have secured the program's 12th NCAA tournament appearance. They'll learn more about what's next during the tourney selection show at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
"Coming into this tournament, we were not supposed to be here, but we were able to work our way back from all the ups and downs of the entire season," said Armour, whose solo homer in the third came with UTC trailing 2-0. "But from the fall, something about this team felt so special, and after last weekend against Western, it was like we flipped the switch and we didn't know what was going on, but it was the right time to do it.
"I cannot be prouder of this team, and there's no one else I would want to win this championship with."
Parrott, a former Central High School standout, went 4-0 with a 1.12 ERA and was selected the tourney's most outstanding player. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Armour, Phillips and UTC infielder Emily Coltharp.
At times, this season felt like 2021, when the Mocs lost 11 games in a row at one point and wound up with a 13-25 record.
The 2022 Mocs, though, fought through their adversity and will continue to play.
"We needed some different people in some different positions," said Frank Reed, who is in his 21st season leading the Mocs and is a six-time SoCon coach of the year, most recently in 2015. "We were able to fulfill some of that, and hopefully we'll be able to continue down the road.
"Not to take anything away from last season's team, but there's been a change of mindset. Our seniors have done a really, really good job of taking over and making sure that they remember why we're here. God has blessed this team. He's blessed me - some days I ask why I'm even here, but he's got a purpose for me to be here, and I just want to give him all honor and all the credit for us."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.