Courtesy of Tennessee Athletics
NORMAN, Okla. — The Lady Vols have pushed defending National Champion to a decisive Game 3 after topping Oklahoma, 4-0, in Game 2 of the NCAA Super Regional on Saturday night.
The teams will play again on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT to see who earns a return trip to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, which begins on May 29. The game was slated to start at 11:20 p.m. CT on Saturday, but the coaches agreed to move the game to Sunday. The TV channel is TBA on one of the ESPN Networks.
After a three-hour, 54-minute rain delay, freshman Megan Geer hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second to give Tennessee a lead it would never relinquish.
Ellen Renfroe tossed a shutout, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out six. She worked out of trouble in the seventh after allowing a walk and hitting a batter to give Oklahoma a chance to rally with two outs. Renfroe induced Destinee Martinez into a groundout to Madison Shipman to seal the shutout.
Tennessee (46-11) scored one run in the second and three in the fifth — all on just one base hit. The Lady Vols had just three hits in the game, but took advantage of three walks and three hit batters by Oklahoma’s pitchers.
In the first inning, Oklahoma (49-11) put a pair of runners on base with singles by Destinee Martinez and Shelby Pendley. Ellen Renfroe induced a pair of pop-ups before ringing up Georgia Casey swinging on four pitches for the 1,000th strikeout of Renfroe’s career. Renfroe is just the second UT pitcher to record 1,000 career strikeouts after Lady Vol legend and NCAA record-holder Monica Abbott tallied 2,440 Ks from 2004-07.
Lightning and rain in the Norman area caused a delay of 3:54, halting the game in the second inning with one OU runner on second and two outs. Erin Miller drew a walk when play resumed at 9:30 p.m. ET. Renfroe ended the inning with a strikeout, leaving Martinez looking on a 2-2 count.
Tennessee took its first lead of the Super Regional in the bottom of the second when Megan Geer lasered a full-count pitch from Kelsey Stevens to left field for a one-out solo homer, her sixth on the year.
Geer came up big defensively in the third inning, starting a 4-6-3 double play with two runners on base. Renfroe closed the door on the top of the third with a swinging strikeout of Casey.
The Lady Vols plated three runs in the fifth inning to stretch their lead to 4-0. Taylor Koenig was hit by a pitch with one out and Rainey Gaffin followed with a double to left field. Madison Shipman drew an intentional walk to load the bases and Lexi Overstreet drew a walk to bring home a run. Annie Aldrete drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Gaffin. Melissa Davin reached on an error by the shortstop, driving in Shipman for UT’s fourth run of the night.
The game featured a Hynes Field-record attendance of 1,749.
