Ashley Rogers didn’t start Friday night’s game for Tennessee in the NCAA softball tournament’s Knoxville Regional against Campbell, but she sure did finish it.
The former Meigs County standout entered during the fourth inning and racked up six strikeouts in three hitless innings as the Lady Volunteers cruised to a 9-1 run-rule victory. Rogers improved to 11-5 this season after picking up the win and lowered her earned run average to 2.05.
“I just wanted to go out there and throw one pitch at a time and not do too much,” Rogers said afterward in a news conference. “I wanted to get outs for my team so they could go back in and get more hits.”
Erin Edmoundson got the start for the Lady Vols and worked a 1-2-3 first inning, but a Kayla Fredenhall home run to center field opened the second to give Campbell a 1-0 lead. That advantage would be short-lived, however, as Tennessee scored four runs later in the second on the strength of Zaida Puni’s single to center that scored Rylie West, Kiki Milloy and Lair Beautae.
The Lady Vols were cruising 5-1 in the fifth inning when they produced a three-run outburst, with a Milloy single to left scoring Anna Fox and Amanda Ayala.