Walters tops Cleveland State for softball title
Walters State’s undefeated run through the 2018 TCCAA/ Region VII softball tournament almost was overshadowed by the team that finished second Wednesday on the Chattanooga State field.
Cleveland State used a Courtney Mooneyham grand slam to beat the nationally 12th-ranked host team 4-2 before falling 5-1 to regular-season runner-up Walters, which had defeated the fifth-seeded Lady Cougars 7-4 in the winners-bracket final Tuesday.
Cleveland State also won and lost in the baseball tournament, mauling Motlow State 10-2 with five runs in the first two innings but falling 10-6 to Dyersburg State in the losers-bracket semifinal Wednesday night. Dyersburg’s Eagles got there with an 8-4 win over Chattanooga State.
Nationally top-ranked Walters State (54-6) is in the 3 p.m. baseball championship game today after edging Volunteer State 2-0 on a nine-strikeout five-hitter by Peyton Alford (8-1) and two runs scored by TCCAA player of the year. Vol State plays Dyersburg at noon for the slot against the Senators.
“This is very huge. This is a historic day,” Cleveland State coach Katie Willingham said after her team finished 26-22 for the season. “I don’t think we’ve ever finished higher than fifth before. The girls put it together at the right time to do it.”
She was talking about the program since softball was reinstated in the mid-1990s. Even winning records have been rare.
“I’ve been doing this 21 years and I don’t remember Cleveland State ever being around on the final day,” said Walters State coach Larry Sauceman, who also acknowledged that it was “certainly different” to win a title without ever facing longtime region power Chattanooga State.
“But it’s been that kind of season. I’ve seen it all this year,” Sauceman added.
Mooneyham’s single scoring workhorse pitcher Shiann Stockwell gave the Lady Cougars a quick 1-0 lead against his Lady Senators (41-11), but Walters got six singles and four runs in the top of the second and tournament MVP Casey Gilbert pitched a four-hitter and went 3-for-4. Hattie Campbell also was 3-for-4 and Chealsey Pridgen 2-for-4, each with an RBI and a run scored.
Cleveland State had only five hits off three Chattanooga State pitchers, Mooneyham with two, but three of them came with two outs in the third inning. Stockwell singled, Grayson Brown walked, Macy Bryant lined a single to left field and Mooneyham skipped a four-run homer off the top of the fence.
The Lady Tigers (51-12) got two runs right back in the fourth with Kiley Longmire’s homer after an error, but they left the bases loaded and never mounted another threat.
“Kudos to Cleveland State. They did a great job,” Chatt State coach Blythe Golden said. “We’ll move on. We have a big (20)18 class coming in and our freshmen got good experience, so we expect to be back here next year.”
Noah Fitzgerald and Chris Tyler each doubled and singled and Hayden Lock scored twice against Dyersburg for the baseball Tigers (34-21), who won twice in the tournament as the seventh seed but essentially ran out of pitching. The Eagles’ first four batters totaled seven hits and seven of the eight runs. J.P. Bitzenhofer’s homer highlighted a three-run fourth inning that made the score 8-1.
Against Motlow, Cleveland scored three in the top of first as
Noah Hill struck out but reached first on a wild pitch, Brandon Mason singled, Hunter Oliver walked, Logan Peterson hit a sacrifice fly, Joey Roberson reached on a fielder’s choice, Rhett Baldwin walked and Cameron Payne singled. Hooper Mills (9-3) and Brock Browning struck out 12 batters.
“We got them early and Hooper did a really good job, and Brock gave us three good innings out of the bullpen,” Cougars coach Mike Policastro said. “The offense made it easy today.”
Oliver and Trey Vanderpool each had three hits and two RBIs, while Roberson had two hits with two RBIs and two runs scored and Peterson, Hill and Mason each had two hits and scored twice.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@ timesfreepress.com or 423-7576291.