Tennessee softball loaded the bases with two outs.
The Lady Vols were deadlocked at two in the 14th inning against Alabama, needing just one more win to get back to the Women’s College World Series. With Giulia Koutsoyanopulos at the plate, Tennessee had the opportunity to score the game’s first run in the past 10 innings.
Koutsoyanopulos couldn’t deliver, grounding out to end the inning. She left the bases loaded and Alabama responded, driving in the winning run.
“We kind of had to step up more offensively,” Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly said. “We’re going to go to work tonight and try to figure out what we can do to get more balls in play and try to get more runners crossing home plate.”
The Lady Vols left 18 runners on base in 14 innings at the plate. They left 11 on in the seven extra innings and stranded eight during the final four innings of play.
When it came down to the important moments in extra innings, Tennessee couldn’t execute. The Lady Vols had several opportunities to score a run off Alabama ace Kayla Beaver, but they couldn’t do it.
In the 13th and 14th innings, Tennessee didn’t put any runners in scoring position until there were two outs on the board. That made it much harder for the Lady Vols to execute.
“I think it’s easy to make some things go and make some things happen with less than two,” Milloy said. “But I mean, obviously once you get to two outs, you kind of just have to make sure that you’re getting your leadoff batter on.”
Zaida Puni’s walk to lead off the eighth inning was the only time all game the Lady Vols put their leadoff runner on base. In the other 13 frames, the second hitter of the inning came up facing an out and nobody on.
Instead of taking control of the innings at the plate, the Lady Vols were always behind. Runners got on late in innings, but they couldn’t come around to score. Tennessee hit 3-for-25 with runners on base and only recorded two hits with runners in scoring position.
With two outs in the inning, the pressure on Tennessee’s hitters got even greater. They had to be more aggressive, which played right into Beaver’s gameplan.
“It’s not one thing I think,” Weekly said. “Sometimes, people can get a little too big because they know what that moment is. So you get ahead of yourself and are trying to get the hit before you just see the pitch.”
In the circle, Karlyn Pickens did everything she could. She threw nine scoreless innings, giving her offense countless opportunities to take the lead and win the game. She went toe to toe with Beaver for seven sudden-death innings.
After throwing 129 pitches, Pickens is still looking toward what she can do to help the Lady Vols win the series on Sunday.
“Postseason is a wild time, and things like that are going to happen,” Pickens said. “It’s important that we come back tomorrow, reset our brains and just come back fresh.”
But, Alabama got runners on early. The Crimson Tide loaded the bases in the 14th inning with no outs, needing just a groundout to finish off the win.
Still, after finishing game two with 10 scoreless innings, Weekly is confident in the offense improving in Sunday’s winner-take-all game. With the season on the line, Tennessee will need to improve at the plate to advance to Oklahoma City.
“I believe in our offense,” Weekly said. “I think they’re really, really, really good.”
