Chattanooga vs. Georgia Southern Box Score - Game 3
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Senior shortstop Tara Tembey (Folsom, Calif.) went 3-for-4 with her 11th steal of the year and redshirt-freshman Tiffany Baker (East Ridge, Tenn.) belted her fourth homerun of the season but it was not enough as Chattanooga (35-19, 13-5) fell to Georgia Southern (34-28, 13-8) 2-1 in the regular season finale Sunday afternoon at Eagle Field in Statesboro, Georgia
A pitchers duel right from the very beginning, neither team managed a run over the first 4 ? innings. The Eagles threatened in the bottom of the third inning as a pair of singles and solid base running put runners on second and third with no outs.
Freshman pitcher Michelle Fuzzard (Huntington Beach, Calif.) then induced a foul pop to first base from junior third baseman Robyn Siliga, who had hit two three-run home runs the previous day. She then proceeded to strikeout the next two batters, catcher Jenny Side and shortstop Amanda Hall, to get out of the jam and keep the game scoreless.
A tremendous defensive play up the middle from Hall in the next inning took away a sure leadoff single up the middle and changed the complexion of the inning as GSU then retired the side in order.
It would remain uneventful until Georgia Southern scratched a run in the home half of the fifth inning with an RBI single to left center by Hall to make it 1-0. The Lady Mocs answered right back in the top of the sixth inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second before three consecutive outs squelched the rally.
GSU pushed its lead to 2-0 in the sixth inning with a leadoff double and bases loaded walk before a strikeout retired the side.
Chattanooga narrowed the gap in the top of the seventh as redshirt-freshman second baseman Tiffany Baker (East Ridge, Tenn.) led off the inning with her fourth home run of the season to make it 2-1. Following the first out of the inning, senior shortstop Tara Tembey lined a single down the left field line before being erased in a fielder's choice for the second out of the inning. That would be as close as they would get, however, as GSU ended the threat on a strikeout to secure the 2-1 victory and second place in the Southern Conference.
Fuzzard took the loss for the Lady Mocs to fall to 5-3 while Laliberte picked up her second win of the weekend to more to 17-11.
Offensively for Chattanooga, Tembey led the way with a 3-for-4 performance that included her 11th steal of the year while Fuzzard went 2-for-4 to raise her team-leading batting average to .358. Baker added her fourth home run of the season as she went 1-for-3 with a run and RBI.
The Lady Mocs will resume play as the No. 1 Seed in the 2008 Southern Conference Tournament when they take the field at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7 when they take on No. 8 Western Carolina.
