Chattanooga State is stout with bats, gloves
Having won 13 of 14 games going into their last series of the regular season, and then outscoring Volunteer State 44-32 despite losing two of those three, the Chattanooga State baseball Tigers are geared up for the postseason.
At 31-13 overall and 13-9 in TCCAA games, they are seeded fourth in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII tournament that starts Sunday at Columbia State. The Tigers open Monday at 11 a.m. EDT against the host Chargers.
But Chattanooga State is No. 1 in the TCCAA in both team batting average and fielding percentage.
In fact, the Tigers’ aggregate batting average of .375 is second in NJCAA Division I, behind only top-ranked Wabash Valley, and their clean-fielding rate of .970 is sixth in the nation.
“It’s been a great year and particularly a great one offensively and defensively, as this is probably the best team that I have had in 16 years defensively,” veteran coach Greg Dennis said this week. “We have been consistently good at the plate and in the field and really have rarely dropped off any.”
Chattanooga State scored at least nine runs in seven of its last eight games, the exception being a 2-1 win over Dyersburg State on April 18. The Tigers capped the regular season with a 24-9 win at Vol State, following 10-9 and 13-11 losses to the Pioneers.
Their collective earned run average is only fifth best in the TCCAA, 4.55, but they do have a legitimate mound standout in sophomore right-hander Landon Walker, who has a 5-1 record and 68 strikeouts in his 48 innings.
Fellow soph Noah Fitzgerald is one of the pitchers, but he mainly plays shortstop and leads the conference with a .457 batting average, and freshman infield sidekick Bass Cooper is second at .426. Another Tigers freshman, Jacob Holton, is eighth in the TCCAA at .400. Nine other Chattanooga State players are hitting better than .300.
Sophomore center fielder Sean Cheely is 11th in the nation with 35 stolen bases.
“Hopefully, we can keep some solid play going into the conference tournament and really create some problems for other team,” Dennis said. “If our pitching comes to do work next week, we can be difficult to deal with at times.”