Tennessee softball drops game two during longest game in program history
In an attempt to earn a spot in the Women's College World Series, Tennessee softball found itself in the longest game in school history.
The Lady Vols dropped their second game of the Knoxville Super Regional with Alabama 3-2 in 14 innings.
This sets up a winner-take-all all game three on Sunday with the victor punching its ticket to Oklahoma City.
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The 14-inning clash will go down in the history books as one of the longer games in college softball postseason history. Here's where it stacks up:
— Longest game in Tennessee program history
— Longest super regional game ever
— Longest game between SEC opponents ever
Game one was won through heroics by Laura Mealer. The MTSU transfer shortstop smacked a go-ahead home run on a poor offensive night that was ultimately the difference. The duo of Karlyn Pickens and Payton Gottshall in the circle shut the door on an upset.
In game two, it was a pitchers battle for the majority of the game.
Runs came one at a time for both squads. Tennessee scored in the second and fourth while Alabama pushed its runs across in the first, fourth and 14th.
The winning run came on a chopper to shortstop with the bases loaded an no outs. The Lady Vols intentionally loaded the bases after putting two in scoring position but couldn't get the necessary grounder to get the force at home.
It was Kristen White who put the ball in play to down Tennessee.
The Lady Vols used Gottshall to start who went 3.2 innings gave up one earned run and threw three strikeouts. Pickens got the ball in relief and went 9.1 innings while tossing 129 pitches. She allowed one earned run and struck out 10.
For the Tide, it used Jocelyn Briski to start before she was replaced after four innings. Kayla Beaver relieved her and went 10 innings and 165 pitches without giving up a run.
RBI for Tennessee came from Mealer on a single and Sophia Nugent who hit a solo home run.
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