The University of Tennessee's 2020 softball season was off to a less than stellar start prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down college athletics for the rest of the spring.
One of the root causes of the Lady Volunteers' struggles last year was the absence of Ashley Rogers, the team's top pitcher who was out with a back injury. The former Meigs County High School standout had won 21 games as a freshman in 2019 and was an All-Southeastern Conference selection, but she could only watch as Tennessee went 14-9 before the season was halted just ahead of Southeastern Conference play.
Anyone who needs a refresher course on Rogers' talents won't have to look much further than this past week's SEC tournament. Rogers struck out 13 and 12 batters in wins over Texas A&M and Arkansas, respectively, to help the seventh-seeded Lady Vols reach the semifinals Friday, when Rogers did not pitch as Tennessee's title push ended with a one-run loss to tourney host Alabama.
The third-seeded Crimson Tide beat top-seeded Florida - which shared the league's regular-season title with Arkansas - 4-0 in Saturday's tourney final to win their first SEC tourney title in almost a decade.
One day after throwing 174 pitches in a nine-inning 3-2 victory over the Aggies, Rogers allowed just one hit against the Razorbacks, who were ranked fourth in the country and tops in the SEC with 87 home runs going into the game.
"I really didn't think she'd one-up that performance one day later," Lady Vols co-head coach Karen Weekly said after Thursday's 1-0 victory. "I knew she was hurting before the game, but she wanted the ball, and she just went out there and shut down an amazing lineup. There's so much power in that lineup, and she was really, really special today and just put the team on her back."
Mississippi State photo by Austin Perryman / University of Tennessee pitcher Ashley Rogers was a three-time Times Free Press Best of Preps softball player of the year while starring for Meigs County High School.That's what was missing a year ago, when the Lady Vols were 13th in the SEC in team ERA. Now, with Rogers back, Tennessee pitchers rank second in that category, with the 5-foot-10, right-handed Rogers leading the conference in wins (25) and strikeouts (278).
"I was there with the team, and I tried to be a good mentor and role model to the other pitchers," Rogers said of her role in 2020. "All of the pitchers were pretty new, and I was just there to help them through everything. I hope I was that to them, but I definitely used that as a learning experience, not just 'I was there.' I wanted to use that experience to learn and get better and better myself as a pitcher and become more knowledgeable about the game."
There wasn't much more Rogers could have accomplished before arriving in Knoxville, and it would have been easy for her to think there wasn't much she could improve on.
Rogers - who is from Athens, Tennessee, and graduated from Fairview Christian Academy, which does not have a softball team - won 90 games in her final three seasons with Meigs County, striking out 1,248 batters in that span. She hadn't just been good in high school; she was dominant in leading the Lady Tigers to three consecutive TSSAA Class AA state championships, was the Times Free Press Best of Preps softball player of the year three times and was twice the Gatorade player of the year in Tennessee.
But the first time adversity struck in her college softball career, she didn't rest on her previous accomplishments. She worked to improve so she could set new standards.
"Ashley is such an inspiration. She's such a competitor," said catcher Ally Shipman, whose homer was the difference in the win against Arkansas. "She just wants to go out there and win every single day, no matter if it's a drill or a game. She just goes out there and she really gives it her all, and that really inspires me, and as far as the rest of my teammates, we know that whatever we're struggling with that day - mental or physical - we know that if she can do it, we can go out there and give it our all.
"She's a huge inspiration and such a competitor for this team."
Sunday night, Tennessee (41-13) found out it would host an NCAA tournament regional as the overall No. 9 seed. The Lady Vols will welcome Eastern Kentucky, Liberty and James Madison starting Friday, with Tennessee's opener at 2:30 p.m. against Eastern Kentucky (35-15), which won the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.
The Lady Vols' 17th straight NCAA appearance - and 18th overall - will provide another opportunity for Rogers to showcase the determination and knowledge she enhanced in 2020 despite being sidelined.
"It's just a lot of hard work paying off," Rogers said of her comeback. "A lot of people behind the scenes who have helped me get to where I am, like the trainers and the coaches and anyone that's been involved with either my injury recovery or preparation for my pitches. I'm just so thankful for all those people behind me for helping me get to where I am right now and just helping me get back to my regular self."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.