NCAA Softball Super Regional Preview: Georgia vs. Tennessee
The NCAA Super Regional between No. 7 Georgia and No. 10 Tennessee will be a best-of-three series and will be played at Jack Turner Softball Stadium this weekend. The Athens Super Regional will begin Friday evening at 5 p.m., EDT, and will air on ESPNU. Game two will be Saturday at 3 p.m. on ESPN. Sunday’s game, if necessary, will be played at 3 p.m. on ESPN.
This will be Georgia’s 10thSuper Regional appearance in the program’s history, and the fifth hosted in Athens. The Bulldogs earned three wins this past weekend over Harvard and Northwestern twice to advance.
At the Plate:
Georgia heads into the Super Regional with a .338 team batting average. Cortni Emanuel’s .437 average leads the Bulldog offense. The senior has recorded an impressive 87 hits on the season and has a .465 on-base and a .513 slugging percentage. Alysen Febrey holds a .397 batting average of her own with 69 hits recorded, 18 doubles, and a .661 slugging percentage. Alyssa DiCarlo is batting .386 with 19 home runs and a .813 slugging percentage.
Tennessee is hitting .310 on the season as a team. Leading the way with offensive numbers is Aubrey Leach .447, Jenna Holcomb .399, and Meghan Gregg .394. Leach has recorded 80 hits on the season and has maintained a .571 on-base percentage. Gregg is second on the Lady Vols with 71 hits, 13 of those being doubles and 18 home runs. She also has a .778 slugging percentage. Holcomb has tallied 61 hits on the season and a .432 on-base percentage.
In the Circle:
Mary Wilson Avant and Kylie Bass have divided up the innings in the circle since starting pitcher Brittany Gray was injured. The Georgia pitching staff has a combined 1.61 ERA on the season. Avant is 11-3 and holds a 1.74 ERA of her own with 82 strikeouts in 100.2 innings pitched. Bass has tossed 93.1 innings and holds a 1.80 ERA.
The Lady Vols have relied heavily on the arms of Caylan Arnold and Matty Moss this season. Arnold holds a 2.11 ERA and 222 strikeouts in 209.1 innings pitched. Moss has a 2.42 ERA heading into the weekend with 120 strikeouts in 144.2 innings pitched.
Analysis/Prediction:
We predict this Super Regional will be a high scoring one based on the offensive depth on both participating teams. Both teams are relatively evenly matched when you look at the offensive numbers and pitching stats. Pitchers for both teams will need to keep hitters off balanced, and the offense will need to take advantage of any mistakes. We predict Tennessee will edge out Georgia in this matchup.
