by Jay King
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The second-ranked Lady Vols defeated the Auburn Tigers by a score of 6-4 on Friday, April 18th. This clinches the Lady Vols’ sixth series win so far, and gives them a chance for their second sweep this season.
The Lady Vols started strong in this game, despite giving up a solo home run to Auburn’s Nelia Peralta in the top of the first. They then responded in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Laura Mealer that brought home Taylor Pannell.
The second inning is what brought the scoring surge to the Lady Vols, as a Saviya Morgan triple brought home Ella Dodge, a McKenna Gibson sacrifice groundout brought home Morgan, and a Sophia Nugent three-run homer is what gave them the early 6-1 lead.
After the second inning, scoring became a problem for the Lady Vols, as they were unable to get anymore runs for the rest of the game. This included two innings with no hits, and the bottom of the sixth, where the bases were loaded by Emma Clarke, Ella Dodge, and Taylor Pannell, all getting on base by either a walk or a hit by pitch, but nobody scored.
Auburn’s bats started to heat up in the top of the fourth, starting with an AnnaLea Adams single, and an Anna Wohlers RBI single that brought Thalia Martin home, who pinch ran for Adams. The top of the fifth inning added two runs for the Tigers as well, as Aubrie Lisenby, Rose Roach, and AnnaLea Adams all singled, and Lisenby and Roach scored. At that point, Karlyn Pickens came in relief for starter Sage Mardjetko.
Pickens was then able to shut down the Tigers in the sixth and seventh innings, only giving up one run in that span, which gave her her first save of the season.
Head coach Karen Weekly said this about how the offense played compared to the game on Thursday, “I thought some people did some really good things, starting with Saviya Morgan just having the courage to take that risk [the triple], something that she hasn’t tried in the game, and it, you know, obviously went very well for her. So I think that’s going to be a big key to her moving forward. Just have that tool in her toolbox. I thought Mealer having a good at bat and smoking that RBI to tie the game back up early was really big, because she’s one who’s, you know, kind of been struggling a little bit lately. So we did some good things, but we’re still leaving a lot of runners on base, field, a lot of opportunities to kind of blow that thing open. And we’re going to need to get better at that.”
The Lady Vols next home game is Saturday, April 19th at 2 pm at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium to close out this series versus Auburn and to get the potential sweep.