No. 1 Tennessee Sweeps LSU in Comeback Fashion
No. 1 Lady Vols Keep it Simple and Sweeps the Tigers
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – When you are the No. 1 team in the country, you know the target is on your back. Probably your biggest choice is how you decide to handle that. For the Tennessee Lady Vols, they choose to keep it simple, focus, and have fun.
The Lady Vols just swept the LSU Tigers for the opening SEC weekend, and on back-to-back days they had to come back from a deficit of 4-0. They didn’t panic, they didn’t make snap decisions in fear of suffering a loss, they just moved business as usual and came out on top.
As head coach Karen Weekly put it, “The thing I like about this team is, you know, they don’t choose focus or fun. They understand how to choose both, and they understand when they’re not bringing something.”
In Sunday’s game, after LSU scored four runs to take a 4-0 lead in the third, Tennessee knew what had to be done and you could see them start to come around in the bottom of the third, but ended with a couple of runners stranded.
After Sage Mardjetko and the Lady Vols defense returned the favor, leaving two Tigers stranded, the bottom of the fourth was met with a lineup that was set on making a turnaround.
Emma Clarke entered the fun with a simple plan, after Butt and Rutan got on. She just came to do her job, and great things happened.
“We knew that it wasn’t gonna take one swing to change the game. We had to string together some hits,” Clarke said. “So then I was just thinking, keep it simple. Do my job, get them over, try to get them in. So I tried to simplify my swing and it actually worked out pretty big.”
Clarke didn’t need many pitches; she saw one that she liked and took a 2-1 pitch out to right for a three-run home run. Just like that, the Lady Vols had kept it cool and placed themselves in prime position to take another four-run lead away from LSU.
The fire and fun carried throughout the stadium and team. Ella Dodge snatched a low liner from Char Lorenz in the top of the fifth, and Mardjetko followed with back-to-back strikeouts after issuing a walk to slam LSU’s hopes of placing some space in between the two.
Then, Ella Dodge, in all her clutchness, if that is even a word, decided to jump on the first pitch and tie the game with one swing to lead off the bottom of the fifth. I knew at that point that Tennessee had won this game. This is what they do, and they never waver from their mentality of keeping it simple and fun.
“We don’t coach to the scoreboard,” Weekly said. “We’re gonna coach every little thing because you never know when that’s gonna affect you the most.”
Even when LSU tied the game on a series of walks in the top of the sixth, you knew that there was a bigger moment coming down the line.
First, Erin Nuwer deserves great credit for holding LSU in the sixth and seventh innings. The Char Lorenz walk that brought home Avery Hodge in the sixth was a situation that you couldn’t ask to be perfect.
Coming in with the bases juiced is one of the unfair moments in softball, and to only allow one run in that situation is a win in my opinion. In the seventh, she kept it down and LSU desperately searched for a swing that would be a hopeful punch to Tennessee’s gut, but they were left with nothing.
The Lady Vols also showed this weekend that their pitching staff runs deeper than one name. Sweeping an SEC series without ace Karlyn Pickens available was a statement in itself.
When I asked Weekly about her staff carrying the first SEC weekend without Pickens, she didn’t hesitate to voice how big this was.
“I think it’s big for our team, and they should take a whole lot of pride in that, in winning, you know, sweeping an SEC series without Karlyn available,” Weekly said. “And, you know, that’s a lot of the reason we kind of trained them the way we did, so everybody would be ready.”
Going into the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Vols had to finish the deal and take the series sweep. That is exactly what happened.
LSU tossed Jayden Heavener the whole game. She finished with 157 pitches, so I can only imagine how her arm feels at this moment. Why they decided to throw her the whole time is a question I did not get to ask, but I knew the odds weren’t in her favor in this late-game situation against a Tennessee team that had all the confidence in the world.
“We were planning to just make her throw a lot of pitches and I think we did a really good job at that,” Leach said. “Just being able to make adjustments, even if it wasn’t you at the plate. Just like learning from each other’s at bats. So we were glad we got to see her the whole time.”
With Makenzie Butt and Maddi Rutan on, Gabby Leach came to the plate. Leach had been on fire all weekend and was probably the last person Heavener wanted to see, and on the seventh pitch she showed us all why.
“After I got those two strikes on me, I called time and Karen and Craig came and talked to me,” Leach said. “So they reminded me to take a deep breath and keep it simple.”
Simple is the big word around this program, and they make big moments like this look just that. Leach smashed a three-run homer to right and sent LSU back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana 0-for-3 for the weekend, and clinched a series sweep for the No. 1 Lady Vols.
“Just so much joy,” Leach said. “We have so much fun on this team, I’m so happy that I could be the one to end the game right then and there.”
This Tennessee team is a cohesive bunch that loves to battle with each other. To be the best, you will have to come across some tough situations, and this weekend showed that this Lady Vols team is unfazed and unbothered in the face of adversity.
“I feel like it shows our fight and the grit that we have, and that we’re not giving up no matter what inning they score first in or how much we’re down by,” Clarke said. “It doesn’t matter with this team.”
Something special is brewing in Knoxville, Tenn., and they have the right group to do whatever they want to do this season. They keep it fun, they keep it simple, and they are laser-focused on the business at hand.
“There isn’t a girl on this team that I wouldn’t go to battle for,” Clarke said. “This team is special and I am so grateful to be a part of it, and it really is just all of us versus everyone else.”
