CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The Chattanooga softball team is taking a break from Southern Conference action with a midweek matchup against Lipscomb in Nashville Wednesday evening.
 
GAME DAY INFORMATION
Site: Nashville, Tenn.
Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Links for live stats and video streaming on ESPN+ are available online on the softball schedule page at GoMocs.com. (ESPN mislabeled the game. The link will be attached once it becomes available.)
 
TICKETS
Purchase tickets for all UTC home games online at GoMocs.com or the Frost Stadium ticket booth one hour prior to the start of the game.
 
PROMOTIONS
Saturday, April 20: PIXAR DAY
Sunday, April 21: DISNEY PRINCESS DAY
 
AUTOGRAPH:
Stick around after the game and meet your favorite players up close. Signing autographs on Saturday, April 20 is Shayna Glass, Alyssa Lavdis, Abby Orr, Camryn Cernuto and Presley Williamson. Sunday's signers are Riley Lamb, Abi Pikas, Grace Hixson and Alyssa Orlando.
 
CHATTANOOGA VS. LIPSCOMB
Chattanooga leads the series with Lipscomb 9-6. The Mocs longest win streak against the Bison is five games.
 
LAST TIME THEY MET
Last year in Chattanooga, the Mocs won 3-1 at Frost Stadium. Peja Goold picked up the win and Taylor Long earned her second save of the season. The two combined to strike out nine and gave up just one earned run. Acelynn Sellers doubled in the tying run in the bottom of the third and scored, along with Olivia Lipari, on a single and fielding error.
 
ABOUT CHATTANOOGA (28-11, 9-3 SoCon)
With a pair of sweeps and a 2-1 series win at UNCG, the Mocs are one game up in the Southern Conference. UTC leads the SoCon in wins, batting average, hits, doubles, hit by pitch, on base percentage, sac flies, sac hits, ERA, shutouts, fewest runs, strikeouts and opponent batting average. In the NCAA, UTC is ranked third for double plays turned per game, averaging 0.65 per game.
 
Kailey Snell leads the team with a .363 batting average. She has an inside-the-park home run this season, six doubles and 12 RBI. Kendall Forsythe is hitting .359 with a .602 slugging percentage. She has four home runs and 28 RBI. Kaili Phillips leads the team in home runs with nine and has nine doubles, a triple and 26 RBI. She leads the league in hit-by-pitch with 14 this season and is ranked second in the NCAA for active career leaders with 55. Olivia Lipari leads the team with 33 RBI, has seven home runs and eight doubles while hitting .339.
 
In the circle, Taylor Long has a team-best 2.19 ERA, 11 wins and 104 strikeouts. She is 10^th in the NCAA for strikeouts per seven innings with 9.9 per game. Alyssa Lavdis has seven wins and a 3.04 ERA while Peja Goold picked up both wins this weekend.
 
ABOUT LIPSCOMB (15-27, 4-11 ASUN)
The Bison are currently on a five-game skid falling to Bellarmine (1-2), Middle Tennessee (3-4) and getting swept by Queens in a three game home series. Josey Polk has a team-best .295 batting average with 36 hits, 17 RBI, one home run and six doubles on 36 hits. Kaylyn Belfield his hitting .287 and Elise Shewmaker has 17 RBI with two home runs and seven doubles.
 
Laine Barefoot leads the team with a 3.04 ERA with five wins, a save, 36 strikeouts and a .280 opponent batting average. Countney Sauer has a 3.40 ERA with four wins, four complete games and 24 strikeouts.
 
CHATTANOOGA LEADS THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
With sweeps over Samford and ETSU, the Mocs held on to its lead in the Southern Conference standings with a 2-1 series win at UNCG over the weekend. UTC is 9-3 in league play followed by Mercer at 8-4. The two teams will battle for first this weekend at Frost Stadium.
 
BAILEIGH PITTS NAMED SOCON SOFTBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Baileigh Pitts batted .500 over three games last week as the Mocs topped UNCG in two of those contests to win the weekend series between the two squads. In the opener on April 13, the sophomore finished a triple short of the cycle, going 4-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored in a 6-3 win for Chattanooga. Later that day, Pitts had a hit and an RBI, which came from a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, as the Mocs defeated the Spartans, 6-5, in nine innings. In the series finale on April 14, the Ringgold, Georgia, product recorded an RBI groundout in the third inning and an RBI single to center field in the fifth inning in Chattanooga's 5-4 setback to UNCG. This is her second Player of the Week honor this season. She also won the award on March 4.
 
CHATTANOOGA RANKED THIRD IN NCAA FOR DOUBLE PLAYS TURNED
The Mocs are ranked third in the NCAA for double plays turned per game with 0.65 per game. They have 24 double plays this season including four against UT Martin, tying a single-game record for UTC. Over the weekend at UNCG, Chattanooga tallied four. In the second game, both were non-traditional plays. The first was a diving catch in the outfield by Camryn Cernuto and a throw out at second. The second was an out at first and a throw down to second for the tag.
 
MOCS IN THE NCAA TOP 50 RANKINGS
Chattanooga is ranked in the Top 50 in seven categories. UTC is third for double plays turned per game, 31^st for batting average (.315) and on base percentage (.397), 32^nd for Win-Loss percentage (.718), 45^th for doubles (59), 47^th for doubles per game (1.51), and shutouts (8).
 
MOCS INDIVIDUALS RANKED AMONG THE NCAA'S BEST
Taylor Long is tied with 12 others for first in hit batters. She pitch 73 innings in 19 appearances with just one hit batter. She is also ranked 10^th in strikeouts per seven innings averaging 9.9.
Camryn Cernuto is ranked second for sacrifice bunts per game. She leads the SoCon with 14 and averages 0.36 per game.
Jayce Purdy is ranked 10^th for caught stealing. She has thrown out 12 in their attempts at taking an extra bag.
Kaili Phillips ranks 10^th for hit-by-pitch. She has taken the punch 14 times this season. Phillips holds UTC's single season record with 18 in 2023 and has 45 in her three seasons with the Mocs. She is ranked second among active career leaders when including her 10 from her time at Tennessee for a total of 55 overall.
 
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