In the top of the second inning, Anna Swafford for Georgia belted a solo shot to left on the first pitch of the inning. Gretchen Aucoin, the Lady Vols starting pitcher, shook it off.
In the bottom of the second, a calm, collected Aucoin blasted a solo home run of her own to center field, tying the game.
She had the game back under her control.
“It’s definitely a mindset,” Aucoin said about using her own hitting to accompany her pitching. “You go out there and dominate in the circle, and then come in and celebrate with the rest of the team. Then, you reset yourself. I start focusing in on the other pitcher and getting my timing down as soon as I come in the dugout.”
An RBI triple by Swafford in the third helped push the Bulldogs’ lead to 2-1 over the Lady Vols. Still, though, Aucoin kept her composure by “just breathing.”
“She (Swafford) was the only one who had my number,” Aucoin said. “That was the biggest batter I had to face in the lineup next to (Alex) Hugo, and I had her number all night.”
Down 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Meghan Gregg ripped a single up the middle to plate Lexi Overstreet, and the floodgates opened for the Lady Vols. Aucoin would get hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Megan Geer and Shaliyah Geathers both slapped RBI singles to make the score 6-2.
Rainey Gaffin came in to close in the top of the sixth and seventh, and the Lady Vols ran away with the 6-2 victory. Tennessee (25-7, 5-3 SEC) also clinched an automatic series win with one game left tomorrow.
“Some of the mistakes we make are the sign of our youth and inexperience, but I’m really proud of the toughness they’ve shown,” co-head coach Karen Weekly said. “That’s something that’s been a big emphasis since the South Carolina series.”
The Lady Vols will conclude their three-game series against the Bulldogs (29-7, 6-5 SEC) on Monday night at 7 p.m. at Lee Stadium.
Weekly knows the Bulldogs will be looking for blood and will do anything they have to do to avoid the sweep.
“You wanna win every game, and that’s what we talked to the team about,” Weekly said. “The mark of a champion is that you never take your foot off the pedal. You gotta come out just as strong tomorrow as you did last night. I’m really anxious to see what this team does with a 2-0 lead in the series because we’re gonna learn a lot about them tomorrow.”
