CHATTANOOGA – The Chattanooga Mocs softball team gears up for their final regular season road trip with a non-conference clash in Atlanta, Ga., against Georgia State on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.
 
Chattanooga finished regular season Southern Conference play this past weekend against ETSU where they won two out of three games. They improved to 25-25 overall and finished league play at 9-7, winning nine of their final 12 conference games.
 
Final seeding for the SoCon Championship (May 9-12) will be determined following this weekend's conclusion of play around the league. Currently, the Mocs sit in fourth place behind UNCG (11-2), Mercer (10-3) and Furman (9-5).
 
Sophomore Aly Walker had a big weekend for the Mocs and anchored the high-powered offense. For the three-game series, she finished 7-for-10 (.700) with a double, triple, homerun, two RBI and three runs scored. She went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs in game one's win while finishing a double short of the cycle in a 3-for-3, triple, homerun, two RBI performance on Sunday.
 
For the season, Walker leads the team and ranks second in the SoCon with a .383 batting average while also leading the team in slugging percentage (.583), on-base percentage (.441), doubles (9) and runs scored (27).
 
Freshman pitcher Allison Swinford tossed a complete game, one-hitter in Saturday's 2-0 game two win while not allowing a walk and striking out a pair. For the month of April, Swinford tossed 31.1 innings and pitched to a team-best 1.34 ERA, allowing just six earned runs and 21 hits while striking out ten.
 
Sophomore pitcher Celie Hudson also provided a strong month of April in the circle, pitching to a 1.38 ERA in 56.0 innings of work. She allowed just 11 earned runs and recorded 29 strikeouts. Hudson tossed back-to-back one-hitters in wins over Tennessee State and Furman in route to winning five-straight starts.

Full opponent preview and Chattanooga game notes can be found below.
 
» Previewing: Georgia State (27-21, 12-10 Sun Belt)
Chattanooga and Georgia State meet for the 16^th time in program history. The Panthers hold an 8-7 edge in the all-time meetings and have won four of the last five. The last meeting came back on April 13, 2016, an 11-0 GSU victory.
 
Georgia State enters the game winners of seven of their last nine games and are coming off a series win at UL-Monroe last weekend. They took the first two games of the series before falling on Sunday 8-5 and sit fifth in the Sun Belt standings.
 
Ivie Drake leads the Panthers on offense with a Sun Belt best .430 batting average and ranks fourth across all of NCAA Division I in homeruns (18) and RBI (60). She belted three homeruns last weekend and has three multi-homer games this season.  
 
» Chattanooga Softball Notes | Game Notes

• The Chattanooga Mocs pitching staff was nothing short of stellar in the month of April & led the team to a 9-4 overall record & a 7-3 mark in SoCon play.
  • The combination of starting pitchers Celie Hudson & Allison Swinford threw 87.1 innings & allowed just 17 earned runs, pitching to a 1.36 ERA.
  • Hudson went 6-3 & tossed 56.0 innings, allowing 42 hits & 11 earned runs while striking out 29.
  • Swinford finished the month 3-1 & hurled 31.1 innings while allowing just 21 hits & six earned runs, pitching to a 1.34 ERA.
• The Chattanooga Mocs offense ranks in the top four in the Southern Conference in the majority of the offensive categories.
  • The Mocs are hitting a SoCon-best .290 as a team while also ranking first in hits with 386.
  • Chattanooga has registered double-digit hits as a team in 13 games this season and has out-hit or tied opponents in the hit column in 12 of their last 13 games.
  • UTC features four different hitters batting north of .300 for the season.
• Sophomore Aly Walker has been red hot for the Chattanooga Mocs softball offense over the past couple weeks.
  • She is currently on an eight-game hit streak and has a hit in 12 of her last 13 games. During those 13 games, she has recorded eight multi-hit games including two of them going for three hits.

» Up Next
The Mocs will host SEC-power and nationally-ranked Auburn on Sunday, May 6^th for a season-concluding doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. Over 1,500 tickets have already been sold but a limited number of tickets still remain.
 
Fans can purchase tickets by going to the schedule page on GoMocs.com or by calling the box office at (423) 266-MOCS. (Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm).


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