Rain shortened what was supposed to be a double-header Wednesday for the Lady Vols softball team against the SEC-Western division leading Arkansas Razorbacks into a single game. UT came away with a much-needed 9-0 victory in five innings after three straight losses to Florida over the weekend.
UT co-head coach Ralph Weekly said he noticed some improvements from over the weekend.
“When we got back from Florida, we had a long team meeting talking about how we could be better as players and coaches, and I think they came out tonight fired up and really got it done,” Weekly said.
UT had nine hits on the night and only three strikeouts. Weekly said they focused on hitting during practice this week.
“We put in a couple of new hitting drills we worked real hard on Monday and Tuesday to stay through the ball longer,” Weekly said. “That was real important because at Florida we were pulling off too quick, and we hit really well tonight.”
Cat Hosfield continued her strong freshman season giving up only three hits, two of which did not come until the final inning. Hosfield now had a 2.01 ERA with 126 strikeouts while compiling a 18-5 record.
Patience at the plate and aggressive baserunning were two of the main reasons why UT was able to come away with the victory.
In the first inning, Lillian Hammond was hit by a pitch and made it to second on a stolen base. Then Tiffany Huff was able to send her home on a line drive just over Arkansas shortstop Brittany Griffiths’ reach. The RBI moves Huff’s total to a team-leading 49 on the season.
After Huff, Jessica Spigner worked a 3-2 count and drew a walk, and Erinn Webb followed her with a walk to load the bases with only one out. Freshman Shelby Burchell struck out on a 0-2 pitch, and it appeared Nicole Kajitani might do the same. However, Kajitani came through with solid contact on a ball hit deep into the outfield, but only one run scored. Then Ashley Andrews hit what seemed to be a routine ground ball to the shortstop, but the ball rolled just hard enough to get behind Griffith and two more runs scored for the Lady Vols.
In the bottom of the fourth, UT broke the game open extending what was a 6-0 lead to 9-0 on a three-run Spigner long-ball. The blast was Spigner’s 12th of the season leaving her only one shy of the UT freshman home-run record.
Spigner said improved patience was an important part of the win.
“We tend to (be) a little aggressive and swing outside the zone, so we are really working on swinging inside the zone and waiting on our pitches,” Spigner said. “Tonight we executed that really well; we made the pitcher throw our pitches and not let her get ahead in the count.”
In the bottom of the fifth with the game already in hand, Hosfield and the rest of the Lady Vols were still showing hustle. After letting two baserunners and one of them advancing to third, Hosfield threw a wild pitch, but preserved her shutout by covering home and tagging out Arkansas third baseman Amie Hubbard at the plate.
Up next for UT (26-5, 3-3) will be a weekend series in Knoxville against Mississippi State (15-15, 0-9).
