Tennessee’s bats were finally tamed at the Women’s College World Series, and as a result the Lady Vols are headed home.
After racking up 31 combined hits in their first three games against second-seeded Oklahoma, third-seeded Florida and ninth-seeded UCLA, the seventh-seeded Lady Vols were held to just three on Monday afternoon in a 2-0 loss to sixth-seeded Texas at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. Mac Morgan and Teagan Kavan combined on the pitching gem for the Longhorns, who improved to 54-11 and advanced to the WCWS best-of-three championship series that starts Wednesday night.
“I thought Morgan did a really good job of keeping her drop ball and didn’t really miss a whole lot,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said afterward in a news conference. “You’re facing a good team — a great team, I mean — when you’re in the final four of the World Series. When you’re at the World Series, you’re facing great teams, and as you inch closer and closer to the final two, it’s just great softball.
“I thought we battled, and the key is stringing a few things together. We just weren’t able to do that. I don’t know if we had a leadoff runner on all day, but we weren’t able to string anything together. It wasn’t for lack of fight.”
The Lady Vols finished their stellar season with a 47-17 record, reaching the WCWS semifinal round for the second time in three years.
Katie Stewart broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning when she led off with a home run just over the left-field wall at the expense of Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens. Lady Vols left fielder Alannah Leach backed up to get under the ball but hit the wall, which negated her ability to time a jump to potentially make the catch.
With the newfound 1-0 advantage, Texas coach Mike White made the switch in the top of the fifth from Morgan to Kavan. Morgan surrendered three hits in her four innings while striking out four, and she never allowed a Tennessee runner past second base.
“Obviously they’ve been swinging the bats pretty well, and they beat us two out of three in Austin, too,” White said. “We know when Pickens is on the mound, it’s going to be a low-scoring game for sure, so it really was just throwing to our locations and using our defense, and we were able to do that.
“Mac Morgan was up to the task, and I’m so proud of the way she battled for us today against a really good hitting team.”
Kavan, who started the 3-0 blanking of Florida and the 4-2 topping of Oklahoma in the two previous WCWS games for the Longhorns, gave up a leadoff walk in the fifth inning before retiring the last nine batters she faced. Tennessee’s cold finish at the plate also coincided with Lady Vols first-year hitting coach Craig Snider getting ejected with two out in the fourth for arguing balls and strikes.
“I really didn’t hear what was said, and I didn’t think he came too far out of the dugout,” Weekly said. “There is a rule if assistants come out and argue that things are automatic. You would hope that you get a little bit of leeway because of the stage you’re on right here.
“You certainly don’t want to lose a coach when you’re playing for the biggest game of the season.”
Texas got its second run in the sixth inning, when Lady Vols third baseman Taylor Pannell fielded Victoria Hunter’s grounder with runners on first and second but sailed the throw over first baseman McKenna Gibson.
In her final outing of the season, Pickens worked six innings, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned) while tallying nine strikeouts. She finished with a 25-11 record and a 1.17 earned run average.
“I think you saw what we’re all about this week, just playing completely free and leaving it all on the field,” Pickens said. “It was really cool to be a part of that.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.