Lady Vols win SEC regular-season title
The Tennessee Lady Vols are always good in softball. This year they’re champions. Tennessee won its first Southeastern Conference regular-season title since 2007 on Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 downing of South Carolina before a crowd of 1,974 at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. The No. 4 Lady Vols improved to 41-7 overall and to 19-4 in SEC play heading into Sunday afternoon’s series finale.
“I can’t even describe it,” Lady Vols coach Karen Weekly told reporters afterward. “I’m just so happy for them. They’ve worked so hard. They battled through ups and downs.
“This game was a game of ups and downs. It looked like we might not get back up off the mat, but they did and just came out punching. I am so happy for them.”
This is only the second SEC regular-season championship ever for Tennessee, which soon will turn its attention to the league tournament and Thursday’s quarterfinal round in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Lady Vols won conference tourney titles in 2006 and 2011.
Tennessee clinched a 20th consecutive full season of 40-plus wins with Friday night’s 3-0 blanking of the Gamecocks behind Ashley Rogers and her four-hitter. The 5-foot-10 graduate student, a former Meigs County High School standout, improved to 15-1 with Friday’s shutout and lowered her ERA to 0.76.
Rogers has nine complete games and five shutouts this season, and opponents are hitting just .116 against her.
In Saturday’s conference clincher, senior center fielder Kiki Milloy connected for her 20th home run to set a Tennessee single-season record. Milloy leads the Lady Vols with a .422 batting average.
“Kiki inspires belief in
“We had a couple of innings where we had guys on base. We just didn’t finish, though.” — VOLS COACH TONY VITELLO
everybody,” Weekly said. “Kiki’s a winner. She always believes that she’s going to win and we’re going to win, and she just spreads that to everybody.”
Dawgs top Vols
Tennessee’s nine-game winning streak, its longest of this baseball season, came to a close Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 loss at Georgia.
Left fielder Connor Tate reached all four times, two via hits and two via walks, and drove in two runs as the Bulldogs improved to 26-21 overall and 9-14 in SEC play. Georgia starting pitcher Charlie Goldstein injured his hamstring after facing one batter, but freshman Jarvis Evans entered and worked into the sixth inning, tallying seven strikeouts.
The Vols dropped to 32-15 and to 12-11.
“The at-bats, to me, were good, and they were competitive,” Vols coach Tony Vitello told reporters. “They just weren’t enough. Their guy was changing speeds and throwing well on his end.
“We had a couple of innings where we had guys on base. We just didn’t finish, though.”
Griffin Merritt drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning to pull the Vols within 3-1. Tennessee starting pitcher Chase Dollander worked six innings, giving up three runs on eight hits in 105 pitches.
This is Tennessee’s eighth SEC series of the season and the first with a rubber match.
“Game three should always be exciting,” Vitello said. “There is nothing to save yourself for, whether you’re going back to your room or getting on the bus.”