The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team entered its first NCAA tournament since 2019 with a pretty care-free attitude.
As the lowest seed in the four-team Tuscaloosa Regional, the Mocs drew Alabama, the No. 6 national seed and Southeastern Conference power, in the first round. It was always going to be a tough hill to climb with teams like the Crimson Tide and the Pac-12's Stanford lurking, but three wins was still the weekend goal for the Southern Conference champions.
Why play otherwise?
But during a process that ultimately fell two wins short, veteran UTC coach Frank Reed's players gained something else: respect.
Alabama won 3-0 in Friday's opener and eliminated UTC late Saturday night with a 6-2 victory that ended the Mocs' season at 30-27, but in both losses, Tide coach Patrick Murphy turned to his ace, Montana Fouts, to close the door on a potential rally.
"Obviously, we were hoping to not have to use Montana," Murphy said afterward, "but it was 0-0 and we didn't have any hits, and they had four and were at first and second, so I wasn't going to take that chance."
Saturday night, a seventh-inning leadoff home run by former Ooltewah standout Addison Keylon led to Fouts having to come back in and close out the game.
"They had to bring Montana in both times," Reed said. "I felt like they felt like they needed to do that to keep us from scoring, I guess."
The Mocs defeated Murray State 1-0 in an elimination game Saturday afternoon to set up the rematch.
The Mocs outhit the Tide 14-10 in the two meetings but were never able to mount momentum on the scoreboard. The second loss ended the program's best run in the NCAA tournament since 2011, when the Mocs - led by recent Southern Conference Hall of Fame addition Michelle (Fuzzard) LaCourse - defeated Jackson State and Memphis before falling to Alabama.
UTC's 2022 season started hot, got really cold in the middle and heated up again at the end, with a seven-game winning streak culminating in the conference tourney title. The Mocs aren't expected to lose a single player from their roster, so they could be back.
"It's no secret that we are a very young team," former Heritage standout Reagan Armour said Saturday night. "I can't say enough good things about this team. If you were to ask me, even just a month ago, do you think that we would be here? Honestly, my answer probably would have been no, but just the growth that we have shown, and just the fact that we are a young team truly makes a statement and that the growth is only going to get better. We're only going to get better from here.
"We had our ups and downs this season, but at the end of the season, we truly just clicked, and I could not be more proud of this team."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.