Chattanooga softball split a pair of games Saturday at The Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Fla. UTC held off Central Michigan 7-4 in the opener and fell 10-5 to LIU in Game Two.
The Mocs hit .328 for the day with 12 runs on 21 hits. Kaili Phillips and Olivia Lipari each hit home runs and UTC combined for five doubles and a triple over two games. Alyssa Lavdis picked up a win through seven innings and recorded 11 strikeouts.
CHATTANOOGA 7, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 4 The Mocs extended their win streak to seven games with a 7-4 win over Central Michigan.
Kaili Phillips and Olivia Lipari each hit a home run in the victory and Camryn Cernuto hit her first triple.
Cernuto tripled in the first inning to right field, but was stranded. The Chippewahs put two runs on the board in the first to take an early lead.
The Mocs responded with three runs in the top of the second and never trailed again. Phillips led off with a solo shot to left field, aided to stay fair by the wind. With two outs, Addy Keylon doubled to right field and scored on a double by Abi Pikas to deep right center. Kailey Snell hit a shot up the middle scoring Pikas from first to give UTC the lead for good, 3-2.
Chattanooga added four more runs in the top of the fifth, stretching the lead to five runs. With one out, Lipari homered to left field. Baileigh Pitts reached on a fielding error and Zoe Wright came in to run for her. Phillips walked to put runners on first and second and a single up the middle by Jayce Purdy plated Wright to make it 5-2 in the Mocs favor.
Phillips was thrown out at third trying to steal and a walk to Anna Dovey put two runners back the bags. Keylon took first on a hit by pitch to load it up. Pikas reached on a throwing error by the pitcher scoring Purdy and Snell singled to center field to send Dovey home for the Mocs fifth run of the inning and a 7-2 lead.
Central Michigan made a threat in the bottom of the seventh with a two run homer and nobody out. Alyssa Lavdis pitched seven innings and got a fly out and struck out the last two swinging for the win. She struck out 11, walked four an had two earned runs.
Snell was 3-for-5 with two RBI and Pikas had a pair of runs batted in going 1-for-4. Olivia Lipari was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Phillips and Purdy each drove in a run. Phillips was hit by her seventh pitch this season raising her career total to 40.
LIU 10, CHATTANOOGA 5 The Mocs saw a 5-1 lead disappear in the second game Saturday, falling 10-5 to LIU. The Sharks scored nine runs in the fifth and sixth innings to get the win, snapping the Mocs seven-game win streak.
LIU got on the board in the second, but UTC tied it up in the fourth, putting five runs on the board. Camryn Cernuto singled to lead off the inning and took second on a wild pitch. A fielding error moved her to third and put Olivia Lipari on first. Cernuto scored on a sac fly by Baileigh Pitts and back-to-back doubles from Kaili Phillips and Jayce Purdy sent two more runs across the plate for a 3-1 lead.
Zoe Wright came in to run for Purdy and scored on a double to center field by Addy Keylon. Raven Jones pinch hit single scored Keylon for the Mocs fifth run and a 5-1 advantage.
LIU tied the game in the fifth on four runs on three hits including a bases-clearing triple. The Sharks added five more in the sixth on three hits and an error.
With two outs in the bottom of the inning, the Mocs loaded the bases on three singles, but couldn’t get a run. UTC had three runners reach in the seventh but fell to the Sharks.
Chattanooga closes out The Spring Games Sunday morning with a 10:00 a.m. matchup against Manhattan. Follow the action online with live scoring and streaming by FloSoftball ($$) at GoMocs.com on the softball schedule page.