Even after 90 straight wins against in-state opponents, Tennessee freshman Caylan Arnold wasn’t taking Tennessee State lightly during the teams’ doubleheader on Tuesday.
“I think (mid-week games) are a good opportunity for us to work on things and prepare for the weekend,” Arnold said after the games. “I think it makes us more focused and more ready to go.”
Arnold pitched six innings of one-hit ball as the Vols (37-5, 9-3 SEC) beat the Tigers (9-27, 1-9 OVC) 8-0 in six innings during the first game of the night.
Meanwhile, Tennessee took advantage on the base paths en route to eight runs on just nine hits to secure its 15th straight win. The Vols stole seven bases, led by three from speedy outfielder CJ McClain.
“We wanted to be aggressive on the bases,” Tennessee’s co-head coach Karen Weekly said after the games. “We knew that had been something that (Tennessee State) had struggled with, and we wanted to exploit that.”
Tennessee’s base-running smarts started in the bottom of the first after leadoff hitter and second baseman Aubrey Leach hit an infield single. Leach stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball, setting up an easy score when slugger Meghan Gregg doubled her home a batter later.
Gregg moved to third on a passed ball, then scored when the Tigers’ left fielder dropped a would-be third out off the bat of Scarlet McSwain to deep left field, pushing the Vols’ lead to 2-0 after one inning.
Tennessee’s base running led to more runs in the following inning. After McClain singled with two outs and stole second, Leach walked to bring up Brooke Vines with two runners-on.
She responded with a single through the right side of the infield, bringing in McClain and advancing Leach to third.
Vines stole second base just a few pitches later, putting two runners in scoring position for Gregg, who doubled down the right field line and scored both to make the lead 5-0 over Tennessee State.
While Tennessee was making moves on the base paths, Arnold was shutting any hopes of that down from the Tigers. She held the visitors hitless until the top of the sixth inning, following that with a walk to set up the only real threat from the
Tigers in game one. However, she struck out Danica Gleason to end the top of the inning. Tennessee manufactured two runs in the bottom of the inning to end things early, 8-0.
Tennessee, also, extended its current win streak to 16 and its in-state winning streak to 92 after beating the Tigers 11-1 in game two of the doubleheader.
The offense showed no signs of slowing down after scoring 23 runs in three games against Kentucky over the weekend — all but one of the Vols’ starter recorded a hit in the victory.
“We have a lot of really good players on our bench,” Weekly said. “It means a lot to the kids who start … to see everybody else get playing time, too.”
The Vols opened things with six runs in the bottom of the first. Vines singled in Leach to open the scoring before a walk from Gregg and a McSwain single loaded the bases. Second-game starter Katie Weimer walked, driving in a run, and Taylor Rowland followed with a sacrifice fly.
Back-to-back hits from Chelsea Seggern and McClain ended the scoring. Tennessee added two more runs in the second when Gregg’s hard-hit single went past Tennessee State’s right fielder, and she followed Vines in to score on a little league home run.
Kelsey Morrison got the start in the circle for game two, throwing 2.2 innings and giving up a run on just two hits. Matty Moss relieved her, finishing the final 2.1 innings without allowing a hit.
Tennessee moves on to play Alabama (36-7, 10-5 SEC) in a three-game series this weekend in Knoxville.
