Dan Fleser
Tennessee’s hitters packed a lot of wallop into one inning Friday night at the Women’s College World Series.
With eight softball at-bats, the Lady Vols swingers assured an 11-3 elimination game victory over Florida while diminishing, in blow-by-blow fashion, the anguish lingering from Thursday’s crushing loss to Oklahoma.
“I love that we threw punches,” said Gabby Leach during a postgame on-field interview with ESPN. The smiling, girl-next-door pugilist turned savage in qualifying their intent, “We were ready to punch to kill.”
She threw the first blow with a lead-off triple. The work log thereafter went as follows: Taylor Pannell single, Ella Dodge infield single, Sophia Nugent single, McKenna Gibson walk, Laura Mealer single, Alannah Leach double, Emma Clarke sacrifice fly. The sum was seven runs, six hits and one knockout.
In the end, Tennessee set WCWS program records for runs and hits (12).
Starter pitcher Karlyn Pickens benefitted the most from the outburst. The junior right-hander felt the brunt of Thursday’s loss since she served up the pitch that Oklahoma slugger Ella Parker smashed over the center-field fence for a three-run, walk-off homer. She had a shaky start against the Gators, issuing two walks. Her day ended with that one inning and 23 pitches, however, as Sage Mardjetko and Erin Nuwer finished.
Pickens will have another day to regroup before Tennessee faces Saturday night’s Texas Tech-UCLA loser on Sunday afternoon in another loser-go-home game in Oklahoma City.
The public forum sought to usher Lady Vols coach Karen Weekly into the same space as Pickens following Thursday’s loss, second-guessing the decision to pitch to Parker, who had homered earlier, rather than walk her and take their two-out chances with redshirt freshman Nelly McEnroe-Marinas.
Weekly explained her strategy by saying, “You have two runners on, and if you walk her, that means you put the winning run on base. So, you have to make a decision there.”
Weekly couldn’t do anything more about her choice. The Leach twins did their part, though, in helping to create a better narrative, beginning with Gabby. She had hit in the leadoff spot in the final two games of last week’s Super Regional against Nebraska and star pitcher Jordy Bahl.
“I liked her confidence, the way she was handling her at-bats, the way she responded if the at-bat wasn’t what she wanted,” Weekly said. “I just thought this has worked, so let’s keep going with it.”
Alannah, who replaced Saviya Morgan in the starting lineup and batted seventh, had the big hit of the first inning. Her line drive into the right-center gap drove in three runs. She took third on the throw to the plate, enabling her to score on Clarke’s fly ball. Her RBI hit in the fourth allowed Tennessee to win in run-rule fashion.
“Impressive,” Nugent said. “She prepares every single day. She’s always out there making diving catches in the outfield and working every day in the (batting) cages and all her preparation came and showed on the field today.”
Florida used three pitchers, but not usual starter Keigan Rothrock. She had been dealing with a blister on her pitching hand and the hope was to stay competitive and perhaps use her at game’s end.
Tennessee’s hitters were thorough enough to eliminate that possibility.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.