Twenty-one seasons. Ten Southern Conference championships.
Frank Reed has set a bar for success during his time as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's head softball coach. Even perceived down periods haven't lasted so long, evidenced by four championships since 2011, even with some leaner seasons in that span (15-38 in 2017, 7-14 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and 13-25 last season).
But his 21st season had some huge ups and downs, not necessarily in that order - an eight-game losing streak at midseason and later a seven-game winning streak that led to the SoCon tournament title. It was evident in the NCAA tournament, which began for the Mocs with a 3-0 loss to host Alabama on Friday followed by a 1-0 eight-inning victory over Murray State in an elimination game Saturday evening at the Tuscaloosa Regional.
That sent the Mocs into another elimination game, this time against Alabama - which lost 6-0 to Stanford in Saturday's first game at the site - that ended 6-2 in the Crimson Tide's favor, ending the Mocs' season at 30-27.
After failing to take advantage of some opportunities early against Murray State, the Mocs finally broke through in the top of the eighth when Kaili Phillips, who led off the extra inning by reaching on a fielding error, scored what turned out to be the winning run when Addison Keylon grounded out.
Brooke Parrott got the pitching win against the Racers, allowing only three hits and striking out two batters. The Mocs got four hits in the win - one each by Phillips, Kailey Snell, Reagan Armour and Acelynn Sellers.
"This season has been special," Reed said earlier in the week. "We could have lost every game, but the one thing you couldn't take away was the kids' fight. We've noticed that all year long; they never believed they were going to get beat, and even when they did they always got back up for the next game."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.