Bulldogs Cage Chattanooga At SoCon Tournament In Dramatic Fashion

Thursday, May 11

Chattanooga, Tenn.

2 PM

Samford University

25-29, 0

Chattanooga

25-26, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Chattanooga	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	5	8	3
Samford	4	0	0	1	1	0	X	6	7	1

Bulldogs Cage Chattanooga At SoCon Tournament In Dramatic Fashion

5.11.23 | Softball

Box Score Photo Gallery

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – For the fourth time in a week, the No. 2 seed Samford Softball team prevailed over the No. 6 Chattanooga Mocs in a tightly-contested and dramatic 6-5 game.

Thursday's victory keeps Samford in the winner's bracket of the 2023 Southern Conference Championships. The Bulldogs improve to 25-29 on the year and will face UNCG on Friday at 9 a.m. CT. Chattanooga drops to 25-26.

Sophomore pitcher Jordyn Partain picked up her sixth win in the circle for the Bulldogs. Partain allowed a trio of earned runs over 6.2 innings with three strikeouts. SoCon Pitcher of the Year McKenzie Newcomb finished the game off with a one-out save.

Senior Merritt Cahoon was the catalyst for the Bulldog offense on Thursday afternoon with a pair of hits, a pair of RBIs and a run scored. Outfielder McKayla Cothran also had a stellar game going 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

Before coming in for her second save of the season, Newcomb drove in two and Kinley Pate scored twice.

Just like in Wednesday's first round game, Samford fell behind in the top of the first as the Mocs scratched across a run with a two-out RBI double to right center.

The script repeated itself once again as Sarah Squillace worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first to begin the early inning Bulldog rally. Cothran reached on a Moc throwing error and Bruce walked to load the bases. Two batters later, Cahoon tied the game with a single to right to score Squillace and tie the game. Samford took the lead at 2-1 when Nelson walked with the bases loaded and Cothran scored. Newcomb make it a 4-1 Bulldog advantage with a single back up the middle that scored Cahoon and Bruce.

Chattanooga got back to within a run at 4-3 with a single and Samford error that scored two in the top of the fourth. Another bases loaded walk, this time by Cahoon, pushed the Bulldog back to 5-3 in the home half of the fourth.

The final Bulldog run of the game came in the bottom of the fifth when Cothran singled home Pate to make it a 6-3 game.

High dramatics played out in the top of the seventh as the Mocs got two runners on the base paths and preceded to bring them in with a two-out double to cut the score to 6-5. Partain issued a four-pitch walk immediately following the two-run double before being relieved for Newcomb. With the tying run and go-ahead run on base, Newcomb got a Chattanooga batter to pop out to first base on four pitches to preserve the 6-5 victory.

UP NEXT
Samford will face off with UNCG on Friday at 9 a.m. CT and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.

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