Lady Vols bounce back against Memphis
The Lady Vols recorded a much-needed win over their in-state rival on Tuesday.
After dropping a third straight series and back-to-back games, Tennessee (34-8, 5-7 SEC) rebounded with an 8-0 throttling of Memphis on Tuesday. The No. 10 ranked Lady Vols rolled to an 8-0 victory in five innings in the Mid-State Classic matchup in Columbia, Tennessee.
Star Tennessee shortstop Meghan Gregg registered her 51st career homerun in orange-and-white to tie the Tennessee all-time record. With the win, Tennessee advances to an impressive 123-3 record against in-state teams and remains undefeated against such teams under head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly.
“It was terrific to see us hit the ball like we did today,” K. Weekly said. “It was great breakout in Columbia in front of a great crowd.”
Ridley Sports Complex packed in a sold out crowd, as they saw Gregg and the Volunteers get their bats going early in the game. Gregg hit the first RBI of the day, as senior Scarlet McSwain rounded out the first inning with a sac-fly to give Tennessee a 2-0 lead.
Tennessee didn’t infiltrate the score column again until the fourth inning, but the Vols did not mind. Gregg recommenced the festivities with a three-run homerun to right field. The fifth inning inevitably stopped the game short for the Tigers, as the Lady Vols tallied three more runs in the inning.
After three back-to-back singles for Tennessee to start the fifth inning, junior catcher Abby Lockman brought in a run off a walk. Shortly after, sophomore outfielder Jenna Holcomb hit an RBI single, as the eighth and Memphis gave up the final run of the game on a fielding error.
Lady Vols pitcher Caylan Arnold got back into motion after a rough weekend series against Auburn last week. Arnold earned the win after pitching four innings and striking out four batters. Matty Moss stepped in to relieve Arnold for the final two batters of the game. The Tigers pitchers gave up five walks and had just one strikeout in the loss.
Tennessee cruised to victory with Gregg’s dominant performance.
“We’ve been really struggling the past few weeks, and this just gave us a momentum boost going forward,” Gregg said. “We’ve been working on some things this week, more mentally than physically.”
Tennessee got back on track with its win over Memphis after scoring just seven runs in their last seven games prior to Tuesday. The Vols will need their play to carry over to this weekend as they take on yet another ranked SEC opponent.
With three-quarters of the season in the books, Tennessee ranks ninth in the SEC standings and has just five wins over in-conference opponents on the year. The Lady Vols will need to be on their A-game as they take on No. 14 LSU in Knoxville this weekend.
The orange-and-white will hit the field on Friday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Written by Seth Raborn
Edited by Lexie Little
Featured image courtesy of Tennessee Athletics
