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By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It's that time of year again. The 2015 regular season is officially in the books and the Tennessee Tech softball team is on its way to another Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Golden Eagles (28-26, 15-11) will make the voyage to Edwardsville, Ill. for the program's 21st conference tournament appearance, entering this year's edition as a No. 4 seed thanks to the program's best conference record since 2007.
Tech will begin its quest for a seventh OVC Tournament championship on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT, clashing with No. 5 Eastern Kentucky in the third game of the day at Cougar Field, site of the top-seeded SIU Edwardsville Cougars. A win in the double-elimination format would push the Golden Eagles to a Thursday, 3 p.m. matchup with the winner of No. 1 SIUE and No. 8 Morehead State, while a loss would pin Tech against the SIUE-Morehead loser in a 5:30 p.m. elimination-game, also on Thursday.
Live video of all TTU contests will be available, free of charge, on the OVC Digital Network. CLICK HERE TO WATCH. Radio broadcasts of the first two games will also be available via the Golden Eagle Sports Network through FM 106.1 The Eagle and on the internet. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.
Tech enters the field that features all eight teams with at least a .500 conference record after a strong finish to the regular season that saw the Golden Eagles take two out of three at Morehead State. The weekend displayed a whole host of staples that those who have followed the 2015 Tech bunch have come accustomed to throughout the course of the season.
The weekend's highlights included lights-out pitching, an explosive offense, the squad's ability to comeback, and of course late-inning heroics.
Sophomore Danielle Liberatore (15-11) fittingly tied a ribbon of excellence on a spectacular regular season with, yet again, another piece of program history. In Saturday's opening game of the doubleheader, the 5-foot-10 southpaw struck out 17 Eagles as part of a complete-game victory to once again set the school record for punch outs in a game.
The Peotone, Ill. native set the first bench mark with in a matchup with UT Martin on Mar. 22, before tying the initial standard of 15 in a win over Eastern Illinois on Apr. 4. With the trio of record-setting performances, Liberatore becomes the first hurler in school history to have at least three games of 15 strikeouts or more.
Overall, Liberatore ends the regular season second in the OVC in both ERA (2.18) and strikeouts (232).
Offensively, Tech flexed its muscles to the tune of 35 hits in the set with Morehead State, three of which left the yard to finish the regular season tied with Jacksonville State for the most home runs in the conference with 53.
Junior Olivia Bennett led the TTU way with 14 round trippers to rank third in the OVC, while fellow junior Sabrie Neeb capped off the Tech season-wide long ball brigade with a pair of home runs in Saturday's second game. Neeb ends the regular season on an absolute tear, hitting .403 (25-62) in the club's last 21 games, including pacing Tech with 25 hits, six home runs, seven doubles, and two triples.
Sophomore Kelly Kennedy, who hit a whopping .545 (6-11) in the series against Morehead State, mirrored a similar hot streak that saw the Plainfield, Ill. native hit .405 (17-42) during the 21-game stretch.
As a whole, sophomore Alyssa Richards led the Golden Eagles with a .346 batting average, one of five Tech hitters to bat above .300 along with senior Hannah Eldridge (.344), Neeb (.316), Kennedy (.306), and senior Angi Sakamoto (.305).
Now for the comebacks and late-inning heroics. Saturday featured a pair of them, beginning with a three-run seventh inning that broke a 1-1 tie to push the Golden Eagles to a 4-1 win. In the day's second game, TTU plated three in the fourth, and then one in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to erase a 5-1 deficit en route to a 7-5 victory.
Tech has come back 13 times in the fifth inning or later this year, six of which have come in the seventh inning, and the Golden Eagles have won seven games in their final at bat this season.
Shifting the attention to the opening round matchup with No. 5 Eastern Kentucky (23-26, 13-10), the Colonels won both tilts in the regular season, sweeping TTU in a doubleheader in Richmond, Ky. on Apr. 25. The originally scheduled final game of the series was wiped out due to inclement weather and field conditions.
EKU comes into the tourney having just dropped all three in the squad's final action of the regular season, a road set at Jacksonville State that saw the Gamecocks outscore the Colonels 21-3 in the trio of contests.
Freshman Paige Murphy sits atop the Colonel club with a .340 batting average, while senior Katie Tackett is the Eastern Kentucky leader with 11 home runs. Freshman Sarah Jackson leads the EKU charge with 35 RBI, slugging nine round trippers as well.
Inside the circle, senior Leanna Pittsenbarger (10-12) appeared in both games against Tech on Apr. 25, tossing a one-hit complete game in the opener, before notching a save in the second tilt after recording the game's final two outs. A 2014 All-OVC first teamer, Pittsenbarger finished the regular season in fourth place in the OVC with 144 strikeouts in 123 1/3 innings of work.
Overall, Tech leads the all-time series with EKU, 54-33.
For continuous coverage, check ttusports.com as the tournament progresses for updated start times and the latest Golden Eagle softball news.
