Lady Vol Softball Goes 2-0 on the First Day of the Tennessee Invitational

By Sawyer Hunley

The Lady Vols returned home to play in Sherri Parker Lee Stadium for the first time on Friday as they played host for the Tennessee Invitational.

On day one, Tennessee was set to take on Appalachian State and Penn State.

In the first game against Appalachian State, Tennessee won by a score of 9-1 in six innings.

It was a struggle offensively for the first four innings for Tennessee, but in the fifth inning, the offense finally found its footing.

Tennessee plated six runs in the fifth inning.

The main source of all of those runs was a three RBI double from freshman Elsa Morrison.

Morrison had a fantastic day at the plate in both games.

As did fellow freshman Taelyn Holley. 

The freshman duo combined for five hits out of their thirteen at-bats between the two games.

“They are both very competitive. They both have really high goals for themselves. And high expectations,” said head coach Karen Weekly 

Sophomore pitcher Erin Nuwer was also very impressive in the circle against Appalachian State.

Nuwer gave up a home run to the game’s first batter, which was her first run given up on the season, but then was able to focus back in and only allowed three hits and gave up no runs for the rest of the game.

Game two of the day was very similar, as the Lady Vols’ offense was dead silent for the first four innings of the game.

But again in the fifth inning, the offense arose from the dead as the Lady Vols were able to score four runs in the fifth inning.

The four runs all came off one swing of the bat, and that swing came from sophomore Ella Dodge.  

Dodge came to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs and she made the at-bat count.

This isn’t the first time Dodge has delivered in a big-time situation in her career as she already has clutch home runs against teams such as Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Florida State.

“Just being able to help my team out in any way possible,” said Dodge. 

The other Lady Vol that had a very stellar performance today was sophomore pitcher Sage Mardjetko. 

Mardjetko got the start in game two of the day against Penn State and she was terrific. 

Mardjetko pitched a complete game as she recorded ten strikeouts while only walking two batters and only giving up one run.

This is the third consecutive start for Mardjetko with double-digit strikeouts. 

Tennessee went on to win the game over Penn State by a final score of 4-1.

Tennessee now moves to 16-0 on the year and with a win on Saturday, the third-best start in program history.