Chattanooga Softball Heads to NCAA Regional

Lady Mocs Meet Stanford in NCAA Regional


Related Material

2003 NCAA Regional
Tournament Bracket (PDF)

Chattanooga, fresh off Saturday's Southern Conference Softball Tournament Championship, makes its fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and will play Pac-10 Conference foe Stanford in a first-round game at Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Lady Mocs and Cardinal play Thursday at 6 p.m. EDT.

This will mark the second time Chattanooga has played at a regional hosted by the Tide. In 2001, UTC went 1-2 in the regional with a 5-2 victory over Illinois-Chicago sandwiched around losses to Michigan and Oregon State.

All eight Pac-10 teams made the NCAA Tournament and 17th-ranked Stanford finished 40-24 overall and 7-14 in the league. The Lady Mocs won the only meeting against Stanford, a 3-2 victory on March 16, 1996, at a tournament in Honolulu, HI.

Chattanooga is making its fourth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance and is hoping to build on last year's successful run. UTC went 2-2 in 2002 with two wins over regional top seed and #12-ranked Florida Atlantic. The Lady Mocs lost heartbreakers to Georgia Tech and eventual regional champ Florida State.

UTC is 37-28 overall after winning its seventh SoCon Softball Tournament over the weekend. The Lady Mocs have won seven of their last eight games, the only loss being a 1-0 setback to East Tennessee State in the first championship game.

Tournament Most Outstanding Player Melissa Ramirez went 11-for-15 with 11 RBIs and two home runs in five games. She set a tournament record for hits and RBIs. Pitcher Awbrey Winckler did not give up an earned run in 25 tournament innings and has lowered her ERA to 1.71. Teammate Teri Herbert set a tournament record for runs with seven. Both Winckler and Herbert were named to the all-tournament team.