The opening game of the NCAA softball tournament’s Knoxville Regional has typically been one of the easiest of the season for Tennessee.
That was especially the case Friday afternoon.
Erupting for 11 runs in the third inning, the Lady Volunteers demolished Miami of Ohio 17-0 in five innings for its most lopsided triumph of a 41-14 season. A Sherri Parker Lee Stadium crowd of 1,736 watched as Laura Mealer and Sophia Nugent each drove in four runs, while Emma Clarke and Gabby Leach each drove in three.
“We just wanted to attack the ball early in the count and swing with some conviction behind it,” Mealer said afterward in a news conference.
Tennessee, which has been a top-16 seed every year since the current NCAA tournament format was implemented in 2005, is the No. 7 seed in this year’s 64-team event but had struggled offensively coming in. The Lady Vols scored eight combined runs in their previous four games before Friday, but three of those were against NCAA top seed Texas A&M and the other against No. 4 Arkansas, when they fell 6-1 last week in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
“It was a great way to start for sure, and I’m just happy for our players and really proud of them,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. “They work really hard offensively, and everybody in our dugout knows we have a good offense. We haven’t shown some things lately, and then everybody starts asking, ‘What’s wrong?’
“I think they got sick of hearing that and didn’t let that get to them. They turned the page from last weekend and definitely came out like this was a new season.”
The Lady Vols have now won their past five NCAA tournament openers by the combined score of 49-2.
Two-time SEC pitcher of the year Karlyn Pickens struck out the side in the first inning and got all the run support she would need in the second, when McKenna Gibson homered to left field, Mealer singled to left and Clarke doubled down the left-field line to score Mealer.
Tennessee’s 11-run inning was highlighted by Leach’s three-run homer to right and Mealer’s grand slam to right, and it resulted in Pickens being replaced in the top of the fourth by Sage Mardjetko. Pickens wound up with six strikeouts in improving to 21-8 and lowering her season earned run average to 0.91.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to be on the right side and the wrong side of this game, and I’ve learned that you’ve just got to put your best foot forward out of the gate,” Weekly said. “They gave us the runs that allowed us to take innings off of her, and it was big to get Sage experience, because this is a different stage.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with how we showed up today.”
Tennessee will next play Ohio State (44-12-1) at noon Saturday, with the Buckeyes having advanced later Friday afternoon with a 9-6 win over North Carolina (40-16). The Tar Heels and Miami (35-25) are scheduled to collide at 2:30 Saturday in an elimination game.
A second elimination game will take place Saturday at 5 between the Ohio State-Tennessee loser and the Miami-North Carolina winner.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.