Tennessee softball continued its fall exhibition schedule Friday with a 19-1 victory over Northeast Alabama.
The Lady Vols broke open the game in the sixth inning after struggling to consistently generate offense against Northeast Alabama’s starting pitcher.
Following the exhibition, Tennessee coach Karen Weekly discussed the team’s offensive adjustments, pitching development, and the lessons her players are learning throughout fall competition.
Weekly also praised the development of Erin Nuwer and Payton Hardenburger in the circle, discussed Emma Clark’s transition to third base, and explained why she wants mistakes addressed before the regular season.
Here’s what Weekly had to say following Tennessee’s fourth fall exhibition.
On Tennessee’s offensive adjustments against Northeast Alabama…
“We turned it on in the bottom of the sixth inning. Just, you know, made adjustments trying to get on top of the ball and keep the ball on the ground, and we ended up getting a whole lot more line drives and some hard ground balls. But certainly, we squared the ball up better a whole lot from the sixth inning on. Got to give a lot of credit to their pitcher, their starting pitcher. She went 34-0 last year, and they won the JUCO national championship.”
On her connection to Northeast Alabama’s starting pitcher…
“I coached her mom at Chattanooga. So, yeah, 10 years ago tonight, Addie was in our dugout as a batgirl here in a Tennessee fall game. We got a chance to talk a little bit before the game and catch up a little bit and say hi to her mom and dad. It just kind of reminds me of how old I am that I coached her mom at Chattanooga back in ’98, ’99, 2000. But it’s one of those full-circle moments, and I’m really proud of her and proud of what she’s accomplishing there.”
On the crowd supporting Tennessee during fall ball…
“The crowds have been unbelievable in the fall. I think every game the crowd’s gotten a little bit better, and I was actually anticipating we might not have a good crowd tonight because it’s fall break week here in Knoxville. But I’m just really, really happy to see that many fans in the seats and proud of our girls and the product they put on the field that makes the fans want to come back. It means a lot to us when we have that many people show up to watch us.”
On what has improved most through four fall exhibitions…
“I think just our recognition of where we need to improve. So just now in the huddle, I asked them open-ended questions about what we learned from tonight, and the things they talked about were a lot of the things I wanted them to see. We need to make adjustments quicker. Not wait so long, have everybody go through the lineup once or twice before we start doing something different. We know what to do. We don’t need to wait for the coaches. Those kinds of things. So you’re seeing them talk the game at a higher level as we go on.”
On Bella Faw’s offensive development…
“It’s all about keeping the ball on a liner, on the ground, and we just got to get away from the pop-ups. So it’s about leveling out her swing. She’s made some strides in that direction for sure, and she’ll continue to make more. She needs to, and she will. She’ll work hard. Phenomenal defender. We’ve known that for four years, and I think she has the tools to be an offensive threat. We just got to get the ball on the line.”
On Erin Nuwer’s development in the circle…
“She’s really committed to each pitch. Not hesitating with a pitch, not maybe shying away from it if it’s not working the first time. She’s just determined. I will throw this pitch, whatever it is, drop, rise, change. I will throw this, and I’m going to master the location, whatever it might be. So I just like to see that maturity in her, that she’s going to go for it, no matter what’s happening.”
On Payton Hardenburger’s command and expanding role…
“I absolutely loved her changeup. I thought that pitch was money, and I told her that’s a big-time pitch. It doesn’t matter who you’re facing. That pitch would have been very effective tonight against anybody, and that’s going to be important for us because we need her to take on a bigger role. I love the way she got into jams and got herself out of them and stayed really composed in those innings. And actually, I think she gave her infield and her team really great energy when we got in those jams.”
On Emma Clark becoming more comfortable at third base…
“She’s getting more comfortable. Emma’s the kind of player who can do so many things that we moved her around a lot her first two years. First year she was a lot of right field and some DP. Last year it was first base primarily all year, and then we bumped her over to second at the end. This year I think we want to try and get her settled. Every day she gets better at third, and every day she makes a mistake and she learns from it. The key is to learn from them. You’re going to make mistakes. She wouldn’t be making mistakes if she wasn’t going for it and trying to make plays. But she’s one of the most move-forward kind of kids you’ll ever meet and ever get to coach. Even when she makes a mistake, she’s like, ‘OK, what’d I do? OK, all right, here we go.’ I love coaching somebody like that.”
On what sparked Tennessee’s offensive explosion in the sixth inning…
“Addie did a really nice job against us. We started the rally with her still in there, and then they took her out. I think we had maybe five on the board at that point in time. So a little bit of it is probably seeing another pitcher, but I think the majority of it is our kids decided we’re going to make an adjustment. Somebody has to ignite that. As soon as one person does it, they kind of show the way, and then everybody kind of goes, ‘Hey, we can do that too.’ Getting on a hitting roll like that is contagious, just like a hitting slump is contagious. But it’s all a matter of your mindset and shifting your mindset to this is what we’re going to do.”
On officials calling illegal pitches during fall exhibitions…
“I don’t know if they’re putting an emphasis on it. We have asked them to not let anything slide in fall ball. I think sometimes that happens. They’ll just let it slide because it’s fall ball, and we’ve said no. We want the opposite. If it looks illegal, we want you calling it. We need to get our pitchers pitching legally. You don’t want that call to come up at the worst possible time.”
On using fall exhibitions to teach situational awareness and discipline…
“There are so many teaching moments and so many opportunities to turn to the dugout and kind of explain what happened. That’s a big thing for us to learn quickly. I don’t want 22 players to have to make the same mistake to learn. We can all learn from one mistake or one that somebody does really good, and we can learn from that. Fall ball is a great time for us to, in the game, have a lot of teaching moments and a lot of times that we can stop and talk something through.”
