Tennessee’s quest for a third Women’s College World Series trip in four years and a 10th under coach Karen Weekly sure would be easier if Ole Miss wasn’t in the path.
The 13th-seeded Rebels knocked the fifth-seeded Lady Volunteers out of the Southeastern Conference softball tournament Wednesday night with a 4-1 victory in Lexington, Kentucky. Ole Miss used the pitching tandem of Kyra Aycock and Emilee Boyer, who combined to allow four hits during a third triumph over Tennessee in four tries this season.
“We just wanted to stay in the zone and trust our defense,” Aycock said afterward on the SEC Network. “We’ve already won against them, but we wanted to go out here and do it again, executing and showing who we are.”
Tennessee dropped to 42-10 and will now await its NCAA tournament fate, with the 64-team field set to be revealed at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. The Lady Vols are ranked No. 6 in this week’s Softball America poll and are expected to be a top-eight seed due to their success in nonconference play, which included wins over Florida State, Nebraska, Oregon and UCLA.
Wednesday marked the second straight one-and-done showing for Tennessee in the SEC tourney, with last season’s fourth-seeded Lady Vols losing to fifth-seeded Arkansas 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
“Everything that adds up to a loss was there,” Weekly said in a press conference. “We missed opportunities when we had runners in scoring position. We didn’t make the plays when we needed to keep them from scoring, and we allowed too many free passes. Things aren’t going to go your way all the time in a game, but you have to figure out a way defensively to stop the bleeding.
“On offense, you have to come through with a big hit with runners in scoring position. That’s what softball is about this time of year.”
The Rebels (34-23), who advanced in Tuesday’s opening round with a 2-0 downing of 12th-seeded South Carolina, will now play fourth-seeded Texas in Thursday afternoon’s quarterfinals.
Ole Miss is 3-1 against Tennessee this season and 5-17 against the rest of the SEC. Rebels pitchers have a 1.52 earned run average against the Lady Vols and a 7.18 ERA against everyone else in league play.
“At the end of the day, every team can come out and perform whenever,” Aycock said. “Any team here is successful enough to win.”
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Tennessee took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Bella Faw’s two-out single to right field that scored Elsa Morrison, but a fielding error by Lady Vols second baseman Ella Dodge in the fourth opened the door to a pair of runs for Ole Miss, which had opened with singles by Mackenzie Pickens and Persy Llamas.
Those two unearned runs came against Lady Vols starter Sage Mardjetko, but Karlyn Pickens entered in the fifth and struggled, allowing a walk and hitting a batter before Madi George’s single up the middle scored two to make it 4-1.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.