Greenville, S.C. – Chattanooga pitchers fired back-to-back shutouts as the Mocs claimed a 7-0, 9-0 sweep of Saturday's Southern Conference doubleheader versus Furman at Pepsi Stadium.
Game 1: Chattanooga 7, Furman 0
Junior Peja Goold matched a career-high with 14 strikeouts and tossed a three-hit shutout to lead the Mocs to a 7-0 victory in the series opener.
The Mocs plated a pair of runs in each of the first two innings to take control of the game. Kailey Snell opened the game with a double and moved to third base when Camryn Cernuto reached on an error. Acelynn Seller's sacrifice fly got the Mocs on the board and Presley Williamson drove in the second run on a ground out.
A pair of singles and a wild pitch allowed Raven Jones to cross the plate with the third run of the game in the top of the second. Following two walks, Chattanooga extended the lead to 4-0 on a two-out error by the Paladins.
Goold faced three more than the minimum while improving to 15-5 in the circle. She walked just one batter to go with her 14 strikeouts. Snell and Jones registered two hits apiece to lead the Mocs offense while Cernuto swiped two bases.
Starter
Emme Buzhardt (5-9) took the loss for Furman. The senior allowed five earned runs on eight hits over seven innings. She walked three and struck out three.
Ansley Chiang recorded two hits to lead the Paladins.
Game 2: Chattanooga 9, Furman 0 (5 inn.)
In game two, Taylor Long hurled a two-hit shutout and Chattanooga exploded for nine runs in five innings to down the Paladins, 9-0.
Chattanooga broke open a scoreless game with five runs in the top of the third inning. Zoe Wright beat out an infield single before scoring on a Snell triple into the gap to give the Mocs the lead. Cernuto singed to plate Snell to double the lead and Sellers followed a base on balls with a three-run blast to up the Chattanooga lead to 5-0.
The Mocs cashed in a leadoff walk on Snell's RBI single in the fourth inning before an error kept the frame alive and opened the door for Sellers to drive in two more with a two-out base hit to up the margin to 8-0. Chattanooga took advantage of another Furman miscue to score one more the following inning for the final 9-0 margin.
Long (10-1) struck out eight batters over five innings while walking just two. Snell finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and Sellers went 2-for-3 with five RBI.
Angelina Ricciardi (5-7) took the loss for the Paladins. The sophomore allowed eight runs on five hits over 3.2 innings while issuing four walks and fanning four Chattanooga batters.
Sunday is Little League Day at Pepsi Stadium with the series finale scheduled for a 1 p.m. start. The finale will be streamed live on ESPN+ with live statistics available through StatBroadcast. Links for both can be found at FurmanPaladins.com.
