Tennessee put the softball in Ashley Rogers’ right hand this weekend, apparently with no intention of asking her to give it back.
James Madison and Liberty ganged up on the Lady Vols’ one-woman pitching plan for the NCAA Regional and combined to end Tennessee’s season.
The Dukes struck first, parlaying one swing into a 3-1 victory on Saturday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
After an error and a hit batsman in the second inning, Dukes’ redshirt senior Kate Gordon slugged a three-run homer. Rogers, the Meigs County High standout, retired the side in order in three of the next four innings but the damage was done.
After allowing a run in the first, James Madison starter Odicci Alexander pitched six scoreless innings thereafter.
UT came back with Rogers later against Liberty. The elimination game stretched Tennessee’s plan to the breaking point. It was Rogers’ third start in two days. She had pitched a complete game on Friday in the Lady Vols’ 8-1 opening win over Eastern Kentucky.
Against Liberty, Rogers was charged with five runs in four-plus innings. She issued four walks, two of which preceded Savannah Channell’s grand slam in the fourth. The homer erased Tennessee’s two-run lead and pointed the Flames toward a 6-4 victory.
Callie Turner relieved Rogers and pitched the last three innings.
“That was a lot to put on her in back-to-back days,” UT co-head coach Karen Weekly said of Rogers. “We knew that was the deal coming in and we kind of talked to her about that really all season.”
The gist of the conversation between the coaches and Rogers was that they were not going to ask her to carry such a heavy pitching load during the regular season. The request was reserved for the postseason.
“The SEC tournament was the first time where we said, ‘OK, let’s go back-to-back days and kind of put this plan in motion,” Weekly said.
Rogers’ performance in Tuscaloosa, Ala., was heroic, a tribute to her skill, competitiveness and perseverance. Despite blister and back issues, she pitched UT to consecutive victories over Texas A&M and Arkansas. She worked nine innings against A&M and came back to throw a one-hit shutout against then-No. 6 Arkansas.
She couldn’t summon an encore for the regional, however. It was too much to ask of her, especially against Liberty.
“I think it was just hard for her to really find the spin and the speed that she’s used to having,” Weekly said. “It’s very uncharacteristic of Ashley to walk batters. That just doesn’t happen. I think she was trying to pitch a little bit more carefully once she knew that she really didn’t have her best stuff and what happened happened.”
The Lady Vols now have an entire offseason to reconsider their intentions. While more offense certainly would help, they need to either find or trust someone else to give Rogers some pitching relief at times like this weekend. That would be a better plan.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who covered University of Tennessee athletics from 1988-2019. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.