Chattanooga, TN- After coming off two losses last night to Reinhardt College- totaling the season count to 16- the Lady Scots softball team entered tonight with high hopes of defeating the visiting Lady Lions of Piedmont College and staking their first victory of 2010.

But a failure to score runs continued to be a major theme in the story of the Lady Scots this season.  They have now been shut out in all but two of their last nine games, and tonight, they left 7 runners stranded in game one and 11 more in game two.  4 of those 11 came in the last two innings, when a Lady Scot win seemed imminent:

With two out in the bottom of the seventh and the game still 0-0, Kim Cuticchia began a would-be rally with a base hit up the middle.  One pitch later, the Lady Scots had runners on second and third thanks to a base hit from Christine Core and some aggressive base-running by Cuticchia.  Piedmont, with first base open and a meaningless potential run at the plate, walked first-baseman Courtney Wagoner to load the bases and face clean-up hitter Morgan Booker.  Booker was unfortunately called out on strikes to send the game to extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, Piedmont tacked on a run to take the lead, and the Lady Scots were therefore forced to score one of their own to stay alive.  Sadly, relief pitcher B.J. Cofer managed an effective-enough inning to deny Covenant the win.

Chelsea Krafft, although credited with the loss, had a truly remarkable performance on the rubber.  She pitched two complete games- a total of 15 innings, struck out 3 in game one and 8 in game two, and allowed only 2 earned runs.

The Lady Scots visit Emory University on Saturday in a double-header beginning at 1:00pm.  The Lady Eagles have won 6 of their last 7.