By Corinne Muth
Being No. 1 means getting every team’s best shot. For Tennessee this weekend, No. 5 Florida’s best shot was enough to take the series.
After dropping two consecutive games, the Volunteers dropped their first series of the season in a hostile road environment inside Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
The weekend got off to a solid start for Tennessee with a victory in the opening game of the series.
The Gators responded with resilience and power, winning two of the three games in the series. Aggressive baserunning and dominant batting gave Florida the edge over Tennessee. Taylor Shumaker led Florida in batting average, hitting over .500 throughout the weekend and providing clutch moments all throughout the series.
The SEC has some very dominant softball programs, and Tennessee just got a glimpse of what to expect with more conference play on the way.
Game 1
The Gators came out hot early in the game by scoring one run in the second inning and getting on base. Kenleigh Cahalan hit a home run to set the pace for the game. Florida couldn’t maintain the same momentum for the rest of the game.
Tennessee kept its strong presence on the mound with Sage Mardjetko pitching four innings with seven strikeouts, allowing three hits. The fifth inning proved explosive for the Volunteers with back-to-back doubles from Sophia Knight and Gabby Leach. With one run scored, Tennessee applied pressure, and an Alannah Leach single to center field would score Leach for two runs in the frame.
“[It was about] leaning on each other and just focusing on our plan and how we were going to go about it,” Leach said postgame.
Senior sensation Karlyn Pickens would enter the game for the final three innings and close the door on the Gators, allowing only a single hit. The Lady Vols held on with a first game 2-1 victory of a very competitive series in Gainesville.
Game 2
Tennessee set the tone early, getting on the board in the second inning when freshman Elsa Morrison hit a home run to left-center field. Leach, who had reached base earlier in the inning, also scored on the play that gave the Volunteers a 2-0 lead.
Florida responded quickly in the bottom half of the inning, scoring two runs to even the game. The Gators then took control in the third, with Thomas reaching base early to get momentum.
Walker followed with a two-run home run to center field, putting Florida ahead, and McLellan added another homer later in the inning. The three-run frame gave the Gators a 5-2 lead, and strong pitching kept Tennessee off the board the rest of the game.
“We can only grow from here, and it’s how we come out tomorrow,” Morrison said. “Just with a positive mentality, talking to each other, and all the small things adding up.”
Game 3
Tennessee would be unable to come out with the intensity it had hoped, with Florida immediately getting on the board in its half of the first inning. Picken’s took the mound for the Volunteers, hoping to close the series out, but a home run on the first batter of the game quickly foiled any hopes of an easy victory.
A wild pitch with a runner in scoring position would score a Gator to open the game.
The bats of Tennessee were silent for the majority of the game, with Florida tallying two additional runs in the fifth inning off a wild pitch from Pickens, advancing a runner, and then an RBI single past the shortstop.
“I feel like we were not as aggressive as we needed to be early on,” Tennessee Head Coach Karen Weekly said. “That’s something we talked about, we got to start faster, we started slow, and we gotta put it into action.”
Leach would propel Tennessee quickly back into the game with a late surge in the sixth inning. A two-out bomb to right field with a runner on base. With four outs to work with, Tennessee followed up its late-game spark with a pop-out to close out the sixth.
After retiring the side in order for the bottom of the sixth, Tennessee had set the stage for late-game heroics.
Immediately, a left-field double from Morrison had the tying run in scoring position for the Volunteers with no outs. Florida’s Rothrock, who had pitched the entire game, slammed the door on the Volunteers with three consecutive outs in dramatic fashion to seal it 3-2 for the Gators
The Volunteers drop their first SEC road series loss since 2023 this weekend to a talented Gator team. It isn’t time to panic yet for Tennessee, both these squads showcase strong pitching and batting, but the home field advantage and timely performances propelled the Gators.
Both of these teams are very talented offensively and defensively. Tennessee is still No. 1 in the rankings and will need to perform at the high level they have been to stay consistent in the gauntlet that is the SEC. The Florida Gators are No. 5 in the rankings and they showed why they are this weekend against Tennessee.
“I think [Florida] is the kind of offense where there is no bottom of the lineup, they’ve got really, really good offensive players one through nine,” Weekly said.
Up Next: Tennessee will return to Knoxville for a midweek battle versus Tennessee Tech on Tuesday, March 24, before welcoming Ole Miss for a weekend series and an opportunity to get back on track in SEC play on March 27th.