Matty Moss leads Tennessee to win in NCAA Tournament opener

Led by a dominating pitching performance from Matty Moss, No. 8 Tennessee beat Longwood 5-0 on Friday night to win game one of the Knoxville Regional in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Moss pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit in her sixth complete-game shutout of the season. The sophomore tied her career-high in strikeouts, striking out ten and walking just one hitter to earn her 24^th win of the season.

The spectacular outing from Moss helped earn co-head coach Ralph Weekly his 1,300^th win of his career. Weekly is now just the fourth coach in Division 1 history to reach 1,300 wins and is now fourth all time in career wins.

Tennessee jumped out to an early lead as they scored two runs in each the first-and-third inning.

Vols’ second baseman Aubrey Leach led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. After advancing to second on a passed ball, Leach scored on an RBI single from Jenna Holcomb. Tennessee would

The Vols extended their lead to 4-0 in the third inning following Holcomb’s second RBI single of the game and a massive solo home run from Meghan Gregg.

Brooke Vines would tack on another run in the sixth, smacking a solo home run to right center to make it a 5-0 game.

Tennessee now turns its attention to USC Upstate, who beat Ohio State 7-3 to advance. The Vols and Spartans will square off tomorrow at noon from Sherri Parker Lee Stadium with a chance to advance to the Knoxville Regional final.

Edited by David Bradford

Feature image courtesy of UT Athletics.