Wednesday, May 9, Cougar softball (26-22, 15-17) made things interesting in the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association Region 7 Tournament by eliminating #1 seed Chattanooga State 4-2 before losing in the championship game 5-1 to Walters State.
Excitement abound as the high noon cross town battle between Cleveland State and Chattanooga State turned in to what would feature a home run by each team, only the Cougar homerun would be a Cortney Mooneyham grand slam and the Lady Tiger homerun would be a two run shot off the bat of Kiley Longmire.
All the scoring happened in the bottom of the 3rd inning by the Cougars and the top of the 4th by Chattanooga State. Shiann Stockwell led off with a single followed by a walk to Grayson Brown, another single by Macy Bryant, loading the bases for the heroics of Mooneyham who then lined a one strike pitch over the left field fence.
The Lady Tigers followed with Longmire's two run blast plating Kaleigh Wynne who had reached base on a one out error. Starting and winning pitcher, Kaitlyn Pickens (5-7) would work out of an inning ending bases loaded jam inducing a ground out to Brown at third base. Stockwell would record a save in the 4-2 win facing eleven batters in the final three innings.
On the game, Mooneyham had two hits while Stockwell, Bryant and Baylee Woods chipped in with one each.
Cleveland State softball immediately moved in to the championship vs. the Lady Senators of Walters State and jumped off to a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning. Stockwell led off the game with a single and moved to second when Brown reach first on an error. Bryant followed with a deep fly ball out to right field allowing Stockwell to tag and reach third. Mooneyham once again was part of the run production lining a single to right center plating Stockwell. The RBI was Mooneyham's fifth of the day as she drove in all the Cougar runs in their two games.
That would be the end of the Cougar scoring. Walters manufactured four runs in the 1st inning and added one more in the 7th for the final 5-1 score. Pickens started the game and took the loss as the Cougars managed four hits on the game; one each by Stockwell, Mooneyham, Emily Yell and Bre Dunsmore.