Cleveland State Softball dodged the rain drops on day one in the four-game series vs Chattanooga State but could not dodge the Tiger bats losing 4-2 and 9-1 on Friday March 23 and 10-0 and 13-10 on Saturday April 1. The road conference losses put the Cougars with a TCCAA record of 14-5 and an overall season mark of 23-10.
The losses dropped Cleveland to third place in the TCCAA a half a game behind second place Chattanooga State.
Game One Recap… Friday March 31
The Cougars started out game one on a positive note scoring two runs in the first inning as Emily Higgins doubled driving home Carlynn Atamaniuk and Kristen Fowler for an early 2-0 lead in what would be the only Cleveland State runs on the game. Chattanooga State scored one in the third, two in the fourth and one more in the sixth for the 4-2 win.
Cleveland State managed just two hits on the game, the double by Higgins and a second inning single by Taylor Hancock.
Game Two Recap… Friday March 31
It was the Cougars again starting off the game scoring one run in the first inning with the first three batters reaching base as Hope Ingle scored on a throwing error in what would be the only Cleveland State run in the five-inning 9-1 loss.
Atamaniuk had the lone Cougar hit, an infield single in the third inning.
Game Three Recap… Saturday April 1
It was another five-inning game to start day two of the series as Cleveland State had three hits in the 10-0 loss. Fowler, Ally Starnes and Lexi Vogel had one hit each in a game where the Cougars never mounted a rally of any nature.
Game Four Recap… Saturday April 1
For the third game in the series the Cougars came out of their half of the first inning with a lead as Ingle led off with a homerun. Chattanooga State scored eight runs in innings two, three and four before the Cleveland State bats woke up going on to make a game out of game four.
Down 8-1 in the fifth with two out Ingle singled while Atamaniuk reached on an error setting up a two run double off the bat of Abby Young making the score 8-3. In the sixth down 9-3 the Cougars scored six to knot the score 9-9. Whitney Lee walked with the bases loaded to plate one run, Vogel singled to drive in two and Atamaniuk blasted a three-run homerun.
Chattanooga State came back in the bottom of the sixth to score four putting the Cougars down 13-9. Cleveland State scored one in the seventh when Ally Starnes doubled driving in one as the Cougars would leave runners on second in third to end the game as a line shot towards third base was stabbed at and caught for the final out of the 13-10 loss.
The Cougars had 10 hits on the game led by Ingle, Atamaniuk, Fowler and Ally Starnes with two each while Young and Vogel each had one.
What's Next
The Cougars are back at home scheduled for conference games vs Columbia State on Friday April 7 with start times of 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. EST and on Saturday April 8 with game times at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. EST.
Columbia State has a conference record of 1-16 and is 3-31 on the season.
