CHATTANOOGA – The Chattanooga Mocs softball team is gearing up to play nationally-ranked Ole Miss Saturday evening on SEC Network+ and the WatchESPN App as part of the Ole Miss Invitational held in Oxford, Miss., among others.
Other participants this weekend include Saint Louis, UT Martin and Southern Miss.
The Mocs kick-off the Invitational on Friday morning with an 11 a.m. ET start time against Saint Louis before concluding the day with a 1:30 p.m. ET time slot against familiar foe UT Martin.
Saturday's slate for UTC begins with a 1:30 p.m. ET matchup against Southern Miss before the 6:30 p.m. ET showdown against No. 17 Ole Miss. The game against the tournament-hosts will be broadcasted LIVE on the SEC Network+ and WatchESPN App platforms.
Chattanooga is coming off a 3-2 weekend at the Frost Classic where they featured a strong offense to back up a solid pitching performance. The Mocs batted a blistering .353 (47-for-133) for a team and totaled 16 extra-base hits including four homeruns and 11 doubles.
Hayleigh Weissenbach led the attack over the weekend after batting .471 (8-for-17) with three doubles, her first career homerun and four RBIs. The sophomore belted a three-run game-winning homerun in the bottom of the sixth in Saturday's 8-5 win over SEMO.
Emma Sturdivant continued with her hot bat as she finished the Frost Classic 6-for-15 (.400) with three RBIs and three runs scored. For the season, Sturdivant leads the team in batting average (.429) and slugging percentage (.600) while tying the lead in RBIs (10).
The pitching trio of
Celie Hudson,
Allison Swinford and
Heidi Hall combined for 3.09 ERA in 34.0 innings of work over the weekend. Swinford tossed 5.0 innings of relief and allowed only one hit in Sunday's 6-5 win over Evansville.
Full opponent previews for the upcoming weekend can be found below. Read up on this weekend's Chattanooga Softball game notes
HERE.
Saint Louis Billikens (3-6)
- 2017 Record: 25-25 (12-10 Atlantic 10)
- Newcomers: 4
- Key Players: C Alyssa Chavez (Fr.), INF Sadie Wise (Fr.)
Saint Louis is coming off an even 2-2 weekend at the Louisiana Tech Invitational in Ruston, La. They notched wins over Alcorn State and South Dakota while dropping games to Louisiana Tech and UMass-Lowell. The Bilikens are led on offense by a pair of freshmen in Alyssa Chavez (.417) and Sadie Wise (.364). SLU defeated the Mocs last season in the Frost Classic, 5-2.
UT Martin Skyhawks (6-8)
- 2017 Record: 39-20 (13-5 OVC)
- Newcomers: 8
- Key Players: 3B Jodie Duncan (Sr.), P Hannah Ridolfi (So.)
The Skyhawks participated in last weekend's Frost Classic in the Scenic City and walked away with a 3-2 record for the weekend. UTM defeated Alabama State, Western Illinois and Chattanooga while falling to Western Michigan and IUPUI. The Mocs and Skyhawks have met the last three seasons with UTM taking two of the three.
#17 Ole Miss Rebels (10-2)
- 2017 Record: 43-20 (10-12 SEC)
- Advanced to NCAA Super Regional
- Newcomers: 10
- Key Players: OF Elantra Cox (Sr.), P Kaitlin Lee (Sr.)
Ole Miss enters the weekend ranked No. 17 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll and No. 15 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll. The Rebels advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals last season after hosting and sweeping the Regional Round in Oxford. Ole Miss and Chattanooga have met twice in the
Frank Reed era, both in 2012 at the Red & Blue Classic, and split the pair of meetings.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles (6-8)
- 2017 Record: 27-26 (8-13 C-USA)
- Newcomers: 8
- Key Players: OF Destini Brown (Fr.), P Samantha Robles (R-Sr.)
The Golden Eagles will play their 11
th-straight home game on Wednesday night against Nicholls State. Southern Miss went 6-4 in the previous ten games over that stretch after falling in four-straight (UT-Arlington 2x, LSU & UMass) games at the Tiger Classic held by LSU. Chattanooga is 2-2 against Southern Miss during Reed's tenure.
