The Tennessee Volunteers have the opportunity to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.
With Thursday night's series opener between the No. 18 Vols and No. 13 South Carolina at Founders Park in Columbia getting postponed due to rain, the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division foes will play three times in roughly a 26-hour window. The altered schedule has resulted in two nine-inning games Friday, with the first contest beginning at 3 p.m.
Tennessee has won 13 of its past 16 games to improve to 36-17 overall and 14-13 in SEC play, but the Vols have their latest opportunity to address a 3-12 mark away from Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
"Every SEC game is weighted the same, but you would like to make progress as the year goes on," Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said in a news conference following Tuesday night's 9-5 subduing of Belmont University. "There is no kind of beating around the bush. We need to go on the road and play better."
The Vols have won just two SEC road games all season, topping LSU on April 1 and Georgia on May 5. Winning two games this weekend would be a major step forward in Tennessee's quest to host an NCAA tournament regional for a third consecutive year.
The Gamecocks are 37-15 overall, 15-11 within the league and No. 5 in the RPI rankings.
"I think we need to pick up where we left off with our trip down to Georgia and replicate that same mentality and same effort and see where that gets us," Vitello said. "Maybe we can pay attention to the one or two areas that all of us, myself included, can do a little bit better over the course of the weekend.
"They're at home. It's a tough place to play, and I'm sure they plan to hold court or hold serve there."
Tennessee swept the Gamecocks last season in Knoxville by the combined score of 23-5, but South Carolina leads the all-time series 66-43 and is 39-16 against the Vols in Columbia.
Weekly extension
The Tennessee Lady Vols begin NCAA softball tournament play Friday afternoon at 5:30 against Northern Kentucky in the Knoxville Regional.
They will do so with a coach who is in her 22nd season in Knoxville and plans to be around for many more.
Tennessee announced Thursday afternoon that Karen Weekly has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will run through June 2028. Weekly, whose annually salary is $340,000, has guided the Lady Vols to a sweep of the SEC's regular-season and tournament titles for the first time in program history.
"I've been impressed from day one with Karen with her ultra-competitive mindset to be the best and how professional she goes about her business in leading our softball program," Tennessee athletic director Danny White said in a university release. "She is a great representative of our athletics department and the competitive excellence we strive to have.
"We are excited to sign her to a long-term extension to keep her on Rocky Top."
Tennessee is 44-8 this season and the NCAA tourney's No. 4 overall seed, the highest in program history.
"It's a privilege to be the softball coach at Tennessee and to work for Danny White," Weekly said. "I appreciate his faith and trust in me to lead Lady Vol softball into the future."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.