'Perfect storm' led to UT Lady Vols softball being swept at South Carolina
How bad were the struggles in South Carolina last weekend?
Tennessee softball co-head coach Ralph Weekly said the university’s sports psychologist spent some time during Tuesday’s practice in the Lady Vols’ bullpen.
Three losses to the Gamecocks – two walk-offs and a five-inning 15-5 drubbing – challenged the swagger any team in the rugged SEC has to have.
The losses knocked UT from No. 2 to No. 7 in the national poll.
All the Lady Vols (30-4, 3-3 SEC) have to do is put the pieces back together in time to face No. 6 Georgia (29-3, 7-2) in a three-game series at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium that starts at 5 p.m. Saturday. All games will be televised on SEC Network.
Weekly wasn’t grasping for excuses, but the facts added up against Tennessee.
The previous weekend’s extended trip to Hawaii didn’t end til the wee hours of Monday morning because of travel issues. Riding a bus from Atlanta at the end of an 18-hour journey can be rough.
When the Lady Vols left for Columbia on Thursday, junior pitcher Matty Moss was battling flu-like symptoms that kept her out of Friday’s game and weak Saturday.
And the Gamecocks were as good as Weekly has ever seen them play.
“It was kinda a perfect storm,” Weekly said Wednesday. “If you win that first game, things go a lot better.”
Struggles by pitchers Moss, Caylan Arnold and Gabby Sprang have been magnified with the losses. But Weekly said he’s seen this sort of frustration before.
“We went to Auburn (more than) 10 years ago with (2007 Player of the Year) Monica Abbott on the mound,” Weekly said. “They hit four back-to-back home runs. We called it ‘Bombs over Baghdad.’ She was torn up about it on the bus home, but that was the best pitcher in NCAA history. It happens.”
Best level of SEC talent ever?
Last season, all of the SEC teams qualified for the NCAA tournament.
No other league could boast that.
This year, Weekly said, it could even be better.
The 17th-year co-head coach remembered a time when beating four Pac-12 teams, like Tennessee has done this season – Arizona State, Utah, Oregon State and Oregon – would go a long way in establishing a team as dominant.
This season, the buzzsaw has shifted.
Eleven SEC teams are listed among the Top 25 of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll: 4. Florida, 6. Georgia, 7. Tennessee, 9. South Carolina, 10. Auburn, 12. Texas A&M, 13. LSU, 16. Alabama, 19. Kentucky, 20. Mississippi State, No. 23 Arkansas.
“I’ve been in softball 31 years, including two Olympic teams; I’ve never seen a league like our league,” Weekly said. “There is not an easy team in this league. Even the bottom feeders are doing really well.”
Vines ready to shoulder the load
She still isn’t quite sure how her right shoulder was injured last season, but left-handed hitting junior Brooke Vines is finally healthy after August surgery and eager to contribute.
“I was nervous,” Vines said of her return. “I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. My goal was to come back.”
Vines, used recently as the designated player (hitter), missed the Lady Vols’ first 25 games, but has come on to hit .429 with seven RBIs and a homer at South Carolina.
Al Lesar is a freelance contributor.