The Mocs are on the road for their fifth and final tournament of the season at the “Make it Happen Games” in Madeira Beach, Fla. UTC will take on Siena twice, Niagara, Central Michigan and LIU. This will be the first meeting between UTC, Siena and Niagara while the Mocs took on Central Michigan and LIU last year at The Spring Games in Madeira Beach.
The game will be streamed live by Athletes Go Live for a fee. Live stats will be available. Links can be found online at GoMocs.com on the softball schedule page.
The Mocs are on a 12-game winning streak after sweeping the Gardner-Webb “Spring in the Springs” tournament last weekend and snagging a run-rule victory over Georgia State Tuesday.
UTC is batting .304 and rank 20th in the NCAA for doubles with a Southern Conference leading 36. The Mocs are 40th for triples with six.
Camryn Cernuto leads the Mocs with a .406 batting average. She has two triples, a double and eight RBI and is 9-for-9 for steals. Olivia Lipari is hitting .371 with three home runs, 19 RBI, slugging .677 and is ranked fourth in the NCAA with 10 doubles. Acelynn Sellers leads the Mocs with seven home runs, 23 RBI and is hitting .344 with seven doubles and a triple. Zoe Wright, hitting .364, has a team-high three triples and ranks 15th in the NCAA.
Peja Goold was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Pitcher of the Week last week with a 4-0 record, 39 strikeouts in 23 innings pitched. She struck out a career-high 14 against Stony Brook on Friday at Gardner-Webb and returned to the circle Sunday, throwing a one-hitter against the host Runnin’ Bulldogs and struck out 12. She’s third in the NCAA with four shutouts, fifth with seven complete games, and seventh for strikeouts with a SoCon-leading 82. Taylor Long is second in the league with 52 and is 4-0 in four starts.
Chattanooga opens against Siena on Friday and will play the Saints again Saturday morning. This will be the first meeting between the two programs.
The Saints opened the season with a 5-0 sweep of the CSU Kickoff in Charleston, S.C., then fell in all five at The Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Fla., and split with South Florida. Siena shutout Georgetown and host Charleston Southern in the opening two games and went on to edge Bellarmine by a run, run-ruled CSU and closed out with a win over Georgetown. At the Spring Games, Siena fell to Ohio State by two runs in the opener, then lost to North Florida twice and Cornell in back-to-back match-ups.
Siena is batting .278 led by Chloe Cummings with a .400 average. She has 16 hits with four doubles and two RBI. On the base paths she is 3-for-3 on steals. Kaycie Kennedy has a team-best 2.39 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 26.1 innings pitched. Alissa Eimont has a team-best 24 strikeouts with a 2.46 ERA and a 2-3 record.
UTC is 1-0 against Niagara, beating the Purple Eagles 5-2 in Chattanooga in 2012. The two will meet in the second game Friday.
The Purple Eagles split a pair of games against UMBC and George Mason to start the season after their doubleheader opener against Morgan State was canceled.
Lindsay Mayo leads the team with a .500 batting average with four doubles and three RBI. Natasha Lambani is third on the team with a .421 batting average with three doubles and leads the team with five RBI. In the circle, Sage Johnson has a team-best 2.48 ERA with nine strikeouts in 12.1 innings pitched. She is 2-1 with a complete game and an .209 opponent batting average.
UTC is 4-2 against Central Michigan. The two teams have only ever played against each other in Florida. Last year, the Mocs won 7-4 in The Spring Games in Madeira Beach.
The Chippewas went 1-4 at the Trojan Classic, claiming an 8-0 win over Tennessee State in six innings. They fell twice to North Texas and once to Samford and host Troy. CMU fell in all four at the Marucci Classic in Raleigh, N.C. They fell in back-to-back games against Illinois, lost by one run to host NC State and closed it with a loss to Northern Colorado. The Chippewas got back in the win column with three victories out of five games in the Cardinal Classic hosted by Louisville. CMU picked up a win against Northwestern and two against Longwood while falling twice to the Cardinal.
Carly Sleeman leads the team at the plate with a .426 batting average and six home runs, 20 RBI with two doubles. Tori Briggs is hitting .400 with three doubles and seven RBI. Madelyn Wallace has a team-best 3.06 ERA with a 1-2 record in the circle. Mackenzie Langan and Brooklyn Compau both lead the team with 17 strikeouts apiece and Cierra Laska has 12. Langan is 2-1 with a .276 opponent batting average.
The Mocs are 3-1 against LIU with the lone loss coming in 2024 at the Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Fla. All four meetings have taken place in Florida. The two programs will close out the weekend with a meeting Sunday.
The Sharks have a win over Indiana State in the FGCU Kickoff Classic, splitting with the Sycamores. The fell two to Boston College and were run-ruled by the host Eagles. In the West Point Invitational, LIU fell to Army twice and Syracuse two times. At the Stetson Invitational the next week, LIU dropped all five to the Hatters, Marist (2) and FAU (2).
LIU is hitting .184 as a team with 59 hits including four home runs, eight doubles and a triple. Devon Medina leads the team with a .268 batting average and 11 hits. Alyssa Garcia is hitting .257 with a home run and is 3-for-3 on steals. In the circle Sophia Mariottini has the Sharks’ one win with a 1-4 record and a team-best 6.03 ERA. She has 13 strikeouts in 31.1 innings pitched and a .319 opponent batting average.