CLEARWATER, FLA. --- The Chattanooga Mocs softball team earned a sweep on Saturday with a 10-0 shutout over Colgate and a 6-4 win in nine innings over LIU Brooklyn at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Fla.
The pair of wins improves Chattanooga to 9-19 on the season with one game remaining, tomorrow against Fairfield, on the non-conference tournament schedule.
Game 1 Recap | Chattanooga 10, Colgate 0
Chattanooga struck early with two runs in the top of the first inning as Hayleigh Weissenbach and J.J.
Hamill lead off the game with back-to-back singles putting runners on first and second. Aly Walker pushed them over with a sacrifice bunt as Ashley Conner and Jesslyn Stockard drove both them in by way of a single and a sacrifice fly, respectively, to give the Mocs an early 2-0 lead.
The game remained 2-0 into the top of the sixth when Amanda Beltran launched her second homerun of the season, a solo shot to straight-away center, extending the Mocs lead to 3-0. Chattanooga exploded for seven runs in the top of the seventh on six hits and one Colgate error to blow the game open at 10-0. Conner and Walker both recorded two hits in the half inning alone. Womack and Conner both recorded RBIs and Hamill had three RBIs with a bases-clearing double off the fence in left-center in the inning.
Payten Price (6-12) cruised to the win, notching her first career complete game shutout and faced only 24 batters. She threw all 7.0 innings, allowing just three hits while striking out seven and no walks.
Chattanooga pounded out a season-high 14 hits as the first four hitters in the lineup had multi-hit games. Hamill and Conner both went 3-for-5 at the plate as Hamill picked up three RBIs and Conner had two. Weissenbach was 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot and extended her hitting streak to eight games and scored twice. Walker finished 2-for-3 and added a run. Beltran went 1-for-2 with a solo HR and scored twice.
Game 2 Recap | Chattanooga 6, LIU Brooklyn 4 (9)
For the second-straight game, Chattanooga got on the board first as they scored a run in the top of the second inning as Beltran drove in a run on a deep sacrifice fly to left-center. LIU Brooklyn responded with a run of their own in the home half of the second, also on a sacrifice fly to left-center, knotting the game up at 1-1.
The Mocs broke the tie in the top of the fourth when a two-out single to right-center from Halie Williamson drove in Beltran and Stockard to give Chattanooga a 3-1 lead. The Blackbirds responded in their final at bat in the bottom of the seventh with two runs, including a two-out single to left that tied the game at 3-3 and forced extra innings. In that seventh inning, Weissenbach made a diving catch through the left field fence, robbing a homerun and preserving the eventual win for the Mocs.
In the top of the eighth, starting with a runner on second base (international tie-breaker rules), Chattanooga scored after a sacrifice bunt and a two-out single to left from Conner. LIU Brooklyn answered right back in their half of the eighth on a lead-off single, but did not score another run and forced a ninth inning.
The Mocs failed to move the runner to third after a failed sacrifice bunt by Womack, but Beltran followed that up with a line shot homerun over the left field fence and gave Chattanooga a 6-4 lead. That homer would be the game winner as the Mocs shut the door in the bottom of the ninth and earned the two-run win.
Payten Price (7-12) picked up the win after coming in for the extra frames, tossing 2.0 innings while allowing one hit and one run (runner started on second). Alex Connell pitched an absolute gem as she went 7.0 innings, gave up only four hits and three runs (all earned) while facing 27 batters.
The Mocs had double-digit hits for the third-straight game as they belted 11 hits. Williamson led the offense with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate while driving home two runs. Beltran was 1-for-3 with the game winning two-run homerun and finished with three RBIs while scoring twice. Weissenbach added a hit in five trips to the plate to extend her hitting streak to nine games.