The 2022 Chattanooga Mocs Softball team finished the regular season 25-26 last year, an even 9-9 record in Southern Conference play, and lost 10 of 11 games before their final three-game series of the season against Western Carolina, which they ended up sweeping.
To say the regular season didn't go or at least finish the way the Mocs had hoped would be an understatement, but that team believed in one another. They ended up banding together to sweep through the conference tournament, which included beating the No. 1 seed and host team, UNC Greensboro TWICE to clinch a SoCon Title.
From there, the team ended up bowing out in the Tuscaloosa Regional but not before grabbing one final victory in extra innings against Murray State.
Heading into the 2023 season now, the Mocs are locked and loaded and they're ready to have yet another successful season under long-time tenured head coach Frank Reed.
This season will have a different feel to it, as does every season, but there will only be two returning seasons with infielder Emily Coltharp (who's won two SoCon Titles while at UTC) and pitcher Brook Parrott.
There will be three juniors, seven sophomores, and nine freshmen. So, by and large this is a young Chattanooga team.
"I think the key to our success is going to be our returning sophomores from last year. Some of them were already starters so we're going to depend on people like Acelynn Sellers, Jayce Purdy, Abby Orr, Olivia Lipari, Alyssa Lavdis, Izzy Alley, and Presley Williamson." Said coach Reed.
The continued development of all of those young players is going to be paramount for this year's team as the majority of it is made up of underclassmen.
When it comes to the pitching this season, it'll be led once again by Brook Parrott, the senior.
"Brooke's going to anchor our pitching staff, we've got two young pitchers coming in with Taylor Long and Peja Goold." Coach Reed talked about how excited they were to have them as part of their pitching staff and to go with Alyssa Lavdis and Izzy Alley.
Now, as far as competition goes within this team, coach Reed mentioned one position in particular, or really three positions... "We're trying to figure out what we're going to do in the outfield. We have Addey Keylon, you remember her, she's the one who hit the big homerun in the Championship Game at UNCG," Coach lamented that he routinely envisions that in his mind whenever he sees Addey come to bat.
"You know, Addey wasn't a starter for us last year and she just worked her way into the lineup, she's a great defensive player and we really need her to be strong on the offensive side. They're hoping that she'll be an anchor out there this season."
Who are some others that are in competition for outfield spots?
"We still have Olivia Lipari coming back, she played out in the outfield last year for us, but we could also see using her some at third... and then we have a couple of young freshmen that are sort of fighting for another outfield spot."
Another different element that'll be something to watch for is that Frost Stadium will be getting a makeover with a full turfing of the entire field.
"They're supposed to start work this week with a completion time being back out there at around April 5th."
The team will have to host their first two tournaments at what they called the Quad over there at Warner Park. Despite that, coach Reed is really excited for what's to come, "You're going to be amazed at how that's going to transform (our facility) it's like taking an old house and totally redoing it and it's going to be amazing, not only for us to play on but for the fans to come out and watch and be apart of Chattanooga softball."
The season officially begins Friday, Feb. 10th at 10 a.m. out in Charleston, SC where UTC will play James Madison as part of the Charleston Invitational.
To hear the full interview with head coach Frank Reed, click here.