Mark Berman here in Knoxville where the Virginia Tech softball team beat Tennessee 4-2 in Game 2 of the NCAA regional finals to advance to next weekend's super regionals against Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Tech won a regional for the first time after losing in the regionals the past three years.
"Finally moving on," coach Scot Thomas said. "It's exciting."
Look for a game story in Monday's paper and online Monday,
Mark Berman back here in Knoxville, where Tennessee scored a run in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead on Angela Tincher and Virginia Tech. The score remains 1-0 after 3 innings.
Is that all the run support Megan Rhodes will need? Could be - she has pitched 3 perfect innings so far.
IIn the first inning, the Lady Vols' leadoff batter reached all the way to second on a a Tincher throwing error, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice.
Mark Berman back here in Knoxville, where the Tennessee softball team squashed Virginia Tech 7-1 to force Game 2 of the regional finals.
The outcome was expected ever since Angela TIncher was pulled with Tech down 3-0 in the second inning. Tincher gave up four runs, four hits and three walks.
The Lady Vols finished with 11 hits, including two Erinn Webb homers off reliever Kenzie Roark.
Tech had four hits, incluidng a Beth Walker homer off releiver Ashton Ward.
The bright spot for Tech was that Megan Rhodes pitched 6 2/3 innings, coming back in after Ward faced just three batters in the fifth. So Tincher should be much fresher in Game 2 than Rhodes.
It's do-or-die time for Tech in Game 2, which should start about 6 pm
Mark Berman here in Knoxville, where because of rain, Tech's NCAA softball regional final with Tenn. has been pushed back from 1:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Mark Berman back here in Knoxville, where Tennessee beat Louisville 8-1 in the losers' bracket final tonight to advance to Sunday's NCAA softball regional final against the Hokies.
Virginia Tech beat Tennessee 4-0 on Saturday afternoon to advance to its first regional final. The game will be at 1:30 p.m. today, followed by a second game, if necessary. The Lady Vols will have to beat Tech twice.
The Lady Vols seem confident they can have success against Angela Tincher today, even though she threw a 3-hitter to beat them today. Tincher struck out 14.
"After seeing her for awhile today, it gives you a better feeling," said Lady Vols 1b Jenn Lapicki, who struck out, flied out and struck out. "As the at-bats go on, I started to feel a little bit more comfortable with her."
"We were thinking a little too much [against Tincher]," Lady Vols co-coach Karen Weekly said. "Sometimes when you game plan for something they can go up there with too much in their head. Anybody who knows anything about hitting will tell you you can't think and hit at the same time. I think we need to be a little more reactive tomorrow and just see the ball and hit the ball and certainly get the ball off our shoulder a little bit earlier than we did today."
Tennessee had plenty of trouble with Tincher's riseball, but the Lady Vols say having faced her today will help them Sunday.
"I was trying to focus on looking down on her riseball and got fooled," said Lady Vols CF Erinn Webb, who struck out twice and flied out. "But I think seeing her today in three at-bats is going to be to my advantage because my last at-bat, I felt I saw the ball well. So I'm excited going into tomorrow."
"As you saw the game go along earlier, I felt like we were having a little bit better at-bats, a little longer at-bats and putting the ball on the bat on the ball a little bit more, and hopefully we'll come out and pick up where we left off," Weekly said.
Mark Berman back here in Knoxville where Virginia Tech beat Tennessee 4-0 in the winners' bracket final of their NCAA softball regional.
Tech advances to the finals Sunday, where Tech needs to win just 1 of 2 to win a regional for the first time ever.
Angela Tincher pitched a three-hitter, striking out 14 and walking one.
Caroline Stolle belted a grand slam for Tech in the top of the fourth.
Mark Berman here in Knoxville, where Caroline Stolle hit a grand slam with two outs in the top of the fourth to give Virginia Tech a 4-0 lead over Tennessee.
That should be all the run support Angela Tincher needs. She has eight strikeouts through three innings and has yet to give up a hit.
Mark Berman back here in Knoxville, where the Virginia Tech softball team will face Tennessee at noon Saturday on ESPN2 in the winners' bracket final of this NCAA regional.
"It's great exposure for us," Tech coach Scot Thomas said of getting to play on ESPN2.
The Lady Vols struggled at the plate in their 3-0 win over Liberty High grad Cari Wooldridge and Winthrop tonight, failing to score off her until the bottom of the sixth. So they could have even more trouble against Tech ace Angela Tincher, who struck out 19 and pitched a one-hitter to beat Louisville 1-0 in 10 innings in today's first game.
The Lady Vols intend to be choosy against Tincher.
"What we need to do as batters, what we've been working on, is just staying in the strike zone -- just hit the balls that are strikes," said SEC player of the year Tonya Callahan, who was hitting .473 entering today.
"We know she's a great pitcher going into this, so we're not expecting to go out there and kill the ball," said Shannon Doepking, who homered today. "We do expect to stay in the strike zone. We do expect to get hits off her. And if we stay with our game plan, I think we should be successful."
Tennessee has been to the Women's College World Series the past three years, but the ace of those teams, Monica Abbott, has moved on to the Olympic team. But the Lady Vols have a good lineup featuring 6 hitters batting .292 or better. Tech has just 3 hitters in that category.
Tincher is the best pitcher in the country, though.
"She's definitely got our respect," Lady Vols co-coach Ralph Weekly said. "The key to hitting against her is staying in the strike zone. If you swing at everything she throws and she's got a ton of movement, you're going to have a problem."
Misty Hall homered in the bottom of the 10th to give Tech a 1-0 win over Louisville in an NCAA softball regional.
Angela Tincher had 19 strikeouts and threw a one-hitter.
Mark Berman here in Knoxville, Tenn., where the Virginia Tech softball team is headed to extra innings in its NCAA regional opener against Louisville. The score is 0-0.
Angela Tincher has 14 strikeouts and has allowed just one hit.
But the Hokies have again had trouble getting clutch hits. They have stranded 10 runners against Louisville's Kristen Wadwell, including leaving the bases loaded in the fourth.
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