NCAA softball regional
At KnoxvilleToday› Game 1: Ohio State vs. USC Upstate, 4:30 p.m., ESPN3 (online)› Game 2: Tennessee vs. Longwood, 7 p.m., ESPN2Saturday› Game 3: G1 winner vs. G2 winner, noon, TBD› Game 4: G1 loser vs. G2 loser, 2:30 p.m., TBD› Game 5: G3 loser vs. G4 winner, 5 p.m., TBDSunday› Game 6: G3 winner vs. G5 winner, noon, TBD› Game 7 (if necessary): G6 winner vs. G6 loser, 2:30 p.m., TBD
KNOXVILLE - The push toward next month's eight-team Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City begins this week at 16 sites across the nation, including Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
Riding its "young guns," Tennessee is hosting an NCAA regional for the 13th consecutive year and is seeded among the top eight teams for the sixth time in Ralph and Karen Weekly's 16 years as the program's co-head coaches.
"I call them young guns," Ralph Weekly said, "because it's the first time we've ever entered into a tournament with a sophomore and freshman on the mound."
The reference is to sophomore Matty Moss, who is 23-2 in the circle for the Volunteers (44-10), and freshman Caylan Arnold (19-8), who had just concluded her career with Maryville High School in a TSSAA regional tournament at this time last year.
Now the duo is carrying a heavy load for a program working to make its fifth WCWS appearance in eight seasons.
The journey begins at 7 tonight against Big South tournament champion Longwood (28-27) in a game that will be shown on ESPN2. The double-elimination regional, which continues through Sunday, includes Ohio State (35-16) and USC Upstate (44-11), who play at 4:30 p.m. today.
"Experience is definitely key at this level," Moss said. "But a lot of our freshmen have gotten experience already this season in pressure situations, so I think they'll do great."
The Vols are 16-8 against ranked opponents this year, even with just one senior as a regular member of the lineup. Much of the credit has gone to Moss and Arnold, who was named Southeastern Conference freshman of the year.
"Those pitchers have done a lot this year," Ralph Weekly said.
Tennessee received a first-round bye at last week's SEC tournament in Knoxville but lost 6-2 to LSU in the quarterfinals with a sellout crowd and SEC Network viewers watching. There will be a similar atmosphere this week, but the upperclassmen have told Arnold to "treat it like any other game and to go out and just play softball."
"Not to make it bigger than it is," Arnold said.
Regional winners advance to next week's super regionals, with the winners of those best-of-three series heading to Oklahoma City.
A loss to Arizona ended Tennessee's season on the final day of last year's Knoxville regional. Though Arnold and a host of other newcomers were not on that team, Karen Weekly hopes last week's loss LSU left a taste of what that feeling is like.
"Hopefully we learned that if you come out and don't play well, that you're going to be going home pretty quick," she said. "The SEC tournament - you end the tournament, but you don't end the season. The next time that happens, you end your season. You're going to be saying goodbye to all your friends and packing up your gear for the summer.
"That's a much worse feeling than what happened last week in the SEC tournament."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.