KNOXVILLE – The energy escalated as Tennessee pitcher Caylan Arnold neared the end of her second complete game in two days with the stakes high at Lee Stadium.
The home fans stood, clapping and stomping their feet in rhythm. Somewhere on the first-base side, a chant of “Thank you, seniors!” broke out.
Tennessee shortstop Meghan Gregg swings during an NCAA regional game against James Madison. Gregg ended the game with a two-run home run.
Fast fact
The Lady Vols softball team will play Georgia in the Athens Super Regional on Friday. Game 2 will be Saturday and a third game, if necessary, will be Sunday.
“It was pretty bittersweet,” senior shortstop Meghan Gregg said of the Lady Volunteers’ final home game this season. “I felt like I was a little sad.
“But it’s hard to be sad when we’re going to a super regional.”
For the sixth time in seven seasons, that’s where the Lady Vols are headed. No. 10 seed Tennessee beat Ohio 5-1 Sunday to cap a 3-0 run through the Knoxville regional and advance to play at No. 7 seed Georgia (46-11) on Friday in the first game of a super regional.
“I started thinking about how tomorrow we have practice on the same field,” Gregg said. “So you can’t be too sad. We have a lot of work to do this week and prepare for Georgia.”
Arnold made sure of it.
The sophomore right-hander struck out the first three batters she faced, worked through a one-run hiccup in the second inning and gave up just one hit in the final five to send the Lady Vols (48-12) onward.
“She just executed pitches really, really well today,” Tennessee co-head coach Karen Weekly said. “For her to shut down their top three hitters was phenomenal. She was just dealing the pitches we needed at the time we needed them.”
Jenna Holcomb, Gregg and Chelsea Seggern ripped consecutive singles with one out in the third to load the bases for Tennessee. Holcomb and Gregg scored on an error, and then Seggern stole home to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
Haley Bearden delivered a pinch-hit, two-RBI single in the sixth to make it 5-1.
Ohio (40-17), already with one loss in the regional, needed to beat the Lady Vols twice Sunday to advance.
Instead, the Lady Vols get a rematch of a Southeastern Conference series they lost during a midseason slump that included three straight series losses. Georgia – which swept its regional with a win against Harvard and two victories against Northwestern – took two of three from the Lady Vols in Knoxville in a series spanning the end of March and the first two days of April.
Tennessee, as evidenced by a fairly painless regional sweep that also included wins over Monmouth and James Madison, is playing with more confidence now.
“I would say that we’ve gone through everything you could possibly go through in a season, and we’ve learned so much.” Arnold said. “I feel like we’re a different team. We handle situations differently, and we’ve matured. I’m very excited going into the super regional just because I know where we are now as a team, and I think we’ve made a lot of really great strides.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.