The Chattanooga softball team split a pair of games with Wofford on a warm, sunny Friday afternoon at Hope Field in Spartanburg, S.C., in Southern Conference action.
The Mocs claimed a 3-1 win in the opening game before falling 6-1 in the second. Olivia Lipari led UTC at the plate at 3-for-6 (.500) with a triple and scored two runs while Baileigh Pitts drove in two runs on the day.
Chattanooga’s pitching staff struck out 16, gave up 18 hits and seven earned runs.
GAME 1: CHATTANOOGA 3, WOFFORD 1 The Mocs put a pair of runs on the board in the first and added an insurance run in the sixth after the Terriers cut the Mocs lead in half in the fourth.
Peja Goold picked up her 18th win of the season with eight strikeouts and one walk.
Kailey Snell led off the game with a first pitch single to left and advanced on a sac bunt. Olivia Lipari singled to right and took second on the throw to hold Snell at third.
Baileigh Pitts singled to right deep enough to score Snell and Lipari to give the Mocs an early 2-0 lead. However, it would be five innings before the Mocs crossed the plate again.
Goold struck out two of the three batters she faced in the bottom of the inning. Chattanooga stranded runners in three of the next four innings, while Wofford cut the lead in half in the fourth. A lead-off single in the inning led to a score on a double to left center.
The Mocs added an insurance run in the sixth. Lipari tripled to lead off the inning and scored on a Acelynn Sellers double to make it 3-1.
Wofford’s first batter reached when she was plunked, but Goold sat down the next three swinging.
Lipari was 3-for-3 with a triple and scored two runs. Snell was 2-for-4 and scored the first run. Pitts was 1-for-2 with two RBI and a sac bunt.
GAME 2: CHATTANOOGA 1, WOFFORD 6 In the second game, Wofford responded with 13 hits and six runs for the win.
The Terriers started the bottom of the first with a lead-off walk followed by a single up the middle. A single down the right field line scored the first run of the game.
Chattanooga tied it up in the top of the second. Acelynn Sellers singled to start the inning and was sacrificed over to second by Baileigh Pitts. She advanced to third on a ground out and scored when Raven Jones doubled to right center.
Wofford added another run in the third, two more in the fifth and another two in the sixth.
Jones was 2-for-3 with a double and RBI. Sellers was 1-for-3 and scored a run while Mia Leone got a pinch hit single in the seventh. Taylor Long struck out eight in four innings of work. Alyssa Lavdis pitched the final two innings.
Chattanooga and Wofford wrap up the series Saturday at 1:00 p.m.