Softball Goes 1-1 to Open Fall Season

Saturday, September 16

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

11 AM

Middle Tennessee

Motlow State

9/17/2017 4:23:00 PM | Softball

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The 2017 fall season opened for the Middle Tennessee softball team over the weekend. The Raiders began on Saturday with a 15-1 smashing of Motlow State. They then traveled to Georgia, falling to the Bulldogs 9-0.

The returning 14 players paired with the six newcomers all saw action over the weekend. These newcomers are Samantha Valentine, Brooke McClure, Amber Baldwin, Ryan King, Jocelynn DeLaCruz and Claire Smith.

Against, Motlow the Raiders showed off their offensive spark, recording 20 hits. Seven of those hits were for extra bases and four MT players had multi-RBI games.
In the circle, Gretchen Greer, Pattie Ruth Taylor and Baldwin split time, combining for six strikeouts and just four hits.

Against Georgia, the Bulldogs were able to stifle the Raider bats, allowing no runs to cross home plate. Cori Jennings pitched the game in the circle for the Raiders against the strong-SEC program.

QUOTABLE
"Against Motlow was the first time out and we played really well offensively. We were able to score a quick four runs and kept it up as the game went on. Overall, our first game was positive in all aspects.

Our goal for the fall is to get our newcomers familiar with how we play and the speed of the game. All of our young kids played well against Motlow. We just have to keep working to get one percent better each day and by May we can be a special team!
Our hopes for the fall is that we gel as a team by the end of October. We want our young kids to believe in themselves and our older kids to show good leadership. So far, everything is looking good in those departments. We want our kids to carry themselves big and play one pitch at a time.

We do have some versatility on our team. Several players can play more than one position. This will make for good quality practices as players are fighting to win starting jobs.

Against Georgia, Cori pitched well and held them down. Unfortunately, their pitchers held us down all day as well. We learned that we must do the little things correct every pitch or good teams can exploit your mistakes. Georgia is a very good team in a great conference. We will use this trip as a learning experience and reap the rewards from learning good lessons today. At this point in the fall, I'm proud of the way our kids have responded to coaching and the great work ethic they bring to the park each day." – HC Jeff Breeden

WHAT'S NEXT?
MT's next fall contest will be on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 1pm as they host Cleveland State.