Lady Pioneers Regular Season Finale
By: Nick Kieser
GALLATIN, TENNESSEE — The Volunteer State Community College Pioneer Softball program has finished the 2019 regular season. Totaling up the games the Pioneers finish with a record of (25-16) placing them in third place among the NJCAA Region Seven Conference. Chattanooga State Community College visited the Lady Pioneers to close out the year and won the series 3-1.
Game one of the series was on Friday, April 26 and the Chatt State Tigers took over the hitting totaling 11 hits which led to the 8-1 loss. Tara Cates was the starting pitcher and gave up a season-high 11 hits while pitching the entirety of the game.
The Pioneers had the lead from the bottom of the first inning up until the top of the sixth where the Tigers scored six unanswered for runs. Madison Tidmore for the Tigers had a team-high two RBIs in game one.
Following the first loss, the Pioneers played the second half of the doubleheader on the same day. Except for this time, the game went into an extra inning and the Tigers capitalized with a sacrifice fly-out to close the day out winning 2-1 to go two games up on the Pioneers.
Madalyn Edde started for the eleventh time making her record 4-5 to close the season. Leading once more the Pioneers gave up a run in the six inning to tie it to only force an extra inning.
Game three and four was the Sophomore Day for the Pioneers and the third game of the series was a final of 7-6 in favor of the Chatt State Tigers. Early in the game, the Pioneers scored two only to find themselves in a hole after the Tigers scored four in the fifth inning.
Madison Milton pitched for four innings and in relief Cates then Peyton MacLeod pitched the rest of the third game. After the fifth inning, the Pioneers scored three late but fell one run shy to force a second extra-inning situation.
As for the final game of the series the Pioneers battled hard and defeated the Chatt State Tigers 9-0 in five innings. What jolted the Pioneers was Alex Mcfarlin's third home run of the season and then starting pitcher Maggie Savage allowed three hits in the shutout performance.
The Pioneers will head to Columbia, Tennessee for the Region Seven Tournament Sunday, May 5 and begin play starting at 5:30 p.m. Keep up with the Pioneers performance on Twitter @VSCCPioneersSB for all the news and analysis.
Game one of the tournament will be a matchup with the hosting school Columbia State Community College. Playing the Chargers in the regular season the Pioneers swept the Chargers and look to get the tournament rolling on the right note.