The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team bounced back from losing its second game at last week's Southern Conference tournament to win the league championship.
The Mocs are facing the prospect of elimination sooner than that in the NCAA tournament.
UTC got on the board first Friday in its first game of the Tallahassee Regional against No. 15 seed Florida State, but the host Seminoles pushed runs across in their final two innings at bat and moved to the winners-bracket final with a 3-2 comeback victory over the Mocs.
UTC (42-15), in the NCAA tourney for the 16th time, will try to start another resilient run whehn it faces Auburn (27-20-1) in an elimination game Saturday afternoon, with the first pitch tentatively set for 3:30. Florida State (45-14) and UCF (31-23) — an 11-6 winner against the Tigers in the site's first game earlier Friday — face off first at 1 p.m., with the loser of that game playing the Auburn-UTC winner Saturday evening.
The last team standing Sunday will advance to next week's super regionals and move one step closer to the eight-team Women's College World Series.
The Chattanooga prep softball scene's impact on veteran coach Frank Reed's UTC program was on display again Friday. The Mocs went up 2-0 in the top of the fourth inning, when former Baylor School standout Acelynn Sellers hit a two-out double to left-center field to drive in Silverdale Baptist Academy graduate Kaili Phillips and Ooltewah High School alum Addy Keylon.
Sellers' hit was one of just three for UTC in the game, though, with Phillips reaching on a one-out single in that inning — Keylon walked after that, and both runners advanced on a groundout to set up Sellers — and Camryn Cernuto getting a double in the third. Cernuto also walked in the fifth and advanced to third before being stranded, one of six runners left on base for the Mocs.
Sophomore pitcher Peja Goold went the distance in the circle for the Mocs, and she was pretty solid throughout against a lineup that ranked in the top 10 nationally in batting average (eighth, .339), home runs per game (ninth, 1.49) and slugging percentage (sixth, .589). Goold limited the Seminoles to just a pair of hits in the first four innings, but the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament runners-up got on the board in the fifth after a one-out triple by Jahni Kerr got them going.
Autumn Belviy, who pinch-ran for Kerr, scored two batters later on an infield hit by Hallie Wacaser.
An inning later, the hosts pulled even on a sacrifice fly by Isa Torres and went ahead on an RBI triple by Devyn Flaherty.
The Seminoles are undefeated in nine all-time meetings with the Mocs, including 3-0 in NCAA tourney play. UTC is 2-6 against Auburn and 1-3 against UCF.
Goold, who fell to 12-4 this season, allowed six hits and two walks while striking out four batters.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.