After a run-ruled victory over Miami of Ohio in game one of the Knoxville Regional, the Lady Vols faced another foe from the state of Ohio, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Similar to game one, Karlyn Pickens gets the start for Tennessee.
More similarly, she retires the first two batters she faced with strikes out and the inning closed with a fly out to center field.
Ohio State could be a good challenge for the Lady Vols and their pitching staff on Saturday.
The Buckeyes lead the country in home runs with 143, which is about 2.5 per game this season. OSU gets a bit more dangerous with its ability to go yard when you consider they also lead in the country in RBIs per game with 8.05.
Some sites like, Warren Nolen have OSU’s strength of record at 46. That will put some of OSU’s strengths into perspective, especially when you compare it to Tennessee’s stats while having the sixth strongest strength of record in the country, according to the same site.
Kinsey Fiedler put the Lady Vols in a good spot to start the bottom of the first when she roped one to the right field gap for a double.
A sacrifice bunt moved Fielder to third with one out. A sac fly to right field by Taylor Pannel gave Fielder the chance to dart home and she did just that. The senior beat the tag at home to get the Lady Vols on the board, 1-0 with two outs.
The Buckeyes were able to make things interesting in the top of the second after a single and walk got two runners on with one out. The Lady Vols’ defense made another impressive double play in the Knoxville Regional to eliminate an early threat.
Frye grounded to Pannell at third, got the tag then she threw a dart to first for the double play.
Another sign that the team used an early exit from the conference tournament to focus on the fundamentals. Those otherwise routine outs evaded the Lady Vols at times, but they’re capitalizing early and often to start the NCAA Tournament.
Pickens averages about 9.4 strikeouts per seven innings pitched.
Following her fourth strikeout of the game to close the third inning, the emotion started to peak through with an emphatic ‘Ya!’ Rightfully so, as 65.7% of the pitches at that point in the game went for strikes.
A potentially massive opportunity missed by the Lady Vols in the bottom of the third. A single and back-to-back walks thanks to eight straight-pitched balls loaded the bases with two outs. Unfortunately, McKenna Gibson grounded out on the second pitch to close the frame and strand the bases loaded.
In the 4th inning, Pickens continued to wheel and deal from the circle. A pair of strikeouts pushed her total to six.
That is no small feat.
Ohio State is not an easy team to strike out, as the Buckeyes’ batters average 5.3 strikeouts a game.
Pickens exceeded that average by just the 4th inning.
The Lady Vols found a little more offense in the bottom frame to compliment Pickens’ efforts.
A dribbler by Gabby Leach up the middle, brought in Laura Mealer from third to make a 2-0 game.
The Lady Vols continued to find success with small ball in the 5th inning. It started with two straight beautiful bunts to reach first. A wild pitch advanced Saviya Morgan and Pannell to third and second. A sac fly at the center field wall by Nugent brought in Morgan. Then a grounder up the middle by Laura Mealer was good for an RBI single.
The Lady Vols used four hits to bat in two runs to extend its lead 4-0 through five.
Great defense emerged in the following inning, such as Mealer with a running lunge to snag the second out of the inning.
However, Ohio State found a couple of breaks to get runners in scoring position with two outs.
A 13-pitch battle with Reagan Milliken ended in a 2 RBI double after the ground ball made it all the way to the out in left field. She made a strong effort to to get it home to Nugent, but it went out of the glove and the second runner scored, unearned, as Nugent’s inability to gather the ball resulted in an error.
That was only Nugent’s second error of the season. The first was against Arkansas in the quarterfinal of the SEC Tournament.
A flyout to left ended the inning with the Lady Vols leading 4-2.
What should’ve been a routine out to capture the second out of the 7th inning resulted in a double by Ohio State. Morgan Frye popped up it on the left field line and despite there being three Lady Vols in the area, they let it drop right in the middle of them.
Pickens sat down the next batter for the 10th strikeout of the game.
The Lady Vols win the game 4-2 after a fly out to left field.