Tennessee softball ended its SEC Tournament stay after just one game, losing, 2-1, to LSU.
With the loss, the No. 1 seed Lady Vols (40-10, 19-5 SEC) end their quest at a second straight SEC Tournament championship. The No. 8 seed Tigers (40-14, 12-12) will play in the semifinal on Friday.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed to be heading home after our first game,” Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly said. “Got off to a little bit of a rough start. Not really characteristic of our pitchers to come out and have those command issues, but I thought we could have overcome that.”
Karlyn Pickens got the nod in the circle for the Lady Vols, but she struggled early. She allowed three walks in the first inning, and LSU got on the board with an RBI single.
Kelley Lynch threw a shutout against the Lady Vols earlier in the season, and she started for the Tigers. She allowed two runners on in the first inning but prevented Tennessee from scoring.
After a rough first inning, Pickens started to find her groove. She allowed one on to start the second inning but then retired six straight across the second and third frames.
Lynch continued her dominance against Tennessee’s lineup. She struck out the side in the third, sending all three Tennessee batters down looking.
Pickens allowed a leadoff double in the fourth inning. After recording one out, she was relieved by Payton Gottshall. Gottshall got the final two outs of the inning to keep LSU’s lead to just one.
The Lady Vols threatened in the fourth inning, putting two runners on. Pinch hitter Alannah Leach couldn’t drive them in, striking out swinging to end the inning.
Through four innings, the Lady Vols couldn’t break through offensively.
“I felt like we got jammed up,” Weekly said. “We fouled balls off when we were in good hitter’s counts. We just need to be a little bit more committed to doing what we want to do in those counts.”
LSU got on the board again in the fifth inning. Following a walk and a single, Taylor Pleasants singled to center field on a ball that was dropped by Kiki Milloy. The base hit drove in another run, adding to LSU’s lead.
Tennessee got on the board in the bottom half of the inning, as Sophia Nugent’s single drove in pinch runner Amanda Ahlin. LSU brought in Sydney Berzon to pitch, and she struck out Taylor Pannell to end the inning.
When Pannell came up, there were still runners on base. It was yet another example of the Lady Vols being unable to convert.
“Winning at this level and winning in postseason: pitching, defense and timely hitting,” Weekly said. “Tonight, we just didn’t have the timely hits.”
Pickens came back in during the sixth inning after Gottshall allowed a runner into scoring position. She struck out two batters to get the Lady Vols out of the inning and hold the deficit to one. Tennessee couldn’t get anything going offensively in the sixth, going down in order.
Tennessee had the top of the order come up in the seventh inning, but its lineup couldn’t convert. McKenna Gibson hit a two-out single, but Rylie West grounded out, ending the Lady Vols’ hopes of repeating their SEC Tournament win.
The Lady Vols now look to the NCAA Tournament and another opportunity to get to the Women’s College World Series.
“All our goals are in front of us,” Weekly said. “Certainly, we want to win every time we come out, but they’re very well aware that the pain they’re feeling tonight. They don’t want to feel that again.”
