When a foul ball was hit into the stands during the sixth inning of Tennessee’s SEC Tournament matchup against LSU on Thursday, a fan raised his home-brought glove to catch the ball but was unable to corral it.
That scene was reminiscent of the play of the Tennessee softball team against the Tigers, as the Vols doomed itself with errors and missed opportunities to fall to LSU 6-2 and exit the tournament after just playing one game.
“Their pitching beat our pitching, and their team beat our team,” co-head coach Ralph Weekly said. “That’s all. That’s what happened tonight.”
The Vols took an early advantage in the bottom of the first inning. After two straight bunts by sophomore Aubrey Leach and freshman Jenna Holcomb that both went for base hits, sophomore Brooke Vines batted in Leach on a sacrifice fly to put Tennessee ahead 1-0.
Neither team scored during the second inning, but Vines notched her second RBI of the contest in the bottom of the third, scoring Holcomb and giving the Vols a 2-0 lead.
The Tigers weren’t content with staying quiet, however.
LSU put two runs on the board in the top of the fourth, and freshman pitcher Caylan Arnold replaced starter Matty Moss to finish out the inning.
But the bleeding didn’t stop there for the Vols.
Moss retook the mound just an inning later in the top of the fifth, replacing Arnold after LSU scored two more runs. The Tigers put their third run of the inning on the board when a wild pitch left catcher Abby Lockman scrambling for the ball, and then went ahead 6-2 off of a Tennessee fielding error.
“I think the momentum kind of switched sides,” junior infielder Meghan Gregg said. “And we never really got it back…We never made that switch to get that momentum back, and that’s probably where we really went wrong was not getting that momentum back.”
Tennessee couldn’t force a rally in the last stretch of the contest, and the Tigers’ advantage stayed secure through the final pitch.
For Vines, the impact of hosting the tournament was not the problem for her team.
“We just didn’t get the job done like we usually do today,” Vines said. “For myself, I didn’t feel much pressure just because I knew that I was playing with the same girls that I’ve been playing with all season and we had the same support system that we’ve had all year long.”
The Vols must now sit and watch the remainder of the tournament play out at their home stadium without having a stake in the outcome.
“We just have to look forward to tomorrow,” Gregg said. “Just keep practicing, doing our same thing, not changing anything. We just had a bad night I think.”
Leach, Holcomb, Vines, Lockman and junior C.J. McClain all recorded hits against the Tigers. Leach and Holcomb each notched a stolen base.
Moss pitched 6.0 innings with 4 hits, 2 earned runs and 4 strikeouts. Arnold pitched 1.0 innings with 4 hits, 3 earned runs and 1 strikeout.
With the NCAA Tournament starting play soon, the Vols will have a chance for redemption once national competition kicks off.
“I told our kids in the meeting that three years ago we got knocked out in the first round of the SEC Tournament and went to the World Series,” Weekly said. “We’ve got a week to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and just see what happens.”
