University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Belmont
Lady Vols Take Both Games From Belmont at Tyson Park
April 18, 2000 | Softball
Box Score-Game One
Box Score-Game Two
Entertaining cross-state foe Belmont on Tuesday night, the Lady Vol softball team captured both ends of doubleheader for the first time all season. Senior Jackie Beavers recorded a 3-0 shutout in the opener and then UT used a six-run fifth to secure a 9-3 victory in the nightcap. The Orange has now taken three contests in a row to move to 19-24, while BU drops to 15-37.
During game one, Tennessee strung together four hits in the third inning off Bruin hurler Christy Dukehart to break a scoreless tie with three runs. Following consecutive bunt singles by senior April Phillips and junior Maura Mollet, a one-out flare into center field by senior Amanda Venable loaded the bases for the Lady Vols. A sacrifice fly by sophomore Adrianna Wilson brought home Phillips with the initial run of the contest before a two-out double by sophomore Maria Torres drove in Mollet and Venable.
The 3-0 bulge was more than enough for Beavers, who tied a career high by fanning nine batters in notching her second shutout of the campaign. The victory halted a five-game losing skein for the right-hander and improved her mark to 9-13. Meanwhile, Dukehart surrendered 10 hits and fanned two in slipping to 7-14.
Belmont jumped on the board in the second encounter with a pair of runs in the top of the first off rookie starter Leslie Poole on two hits and a couple UT errors. Reanna Dickerson reached on a miscue and went to second on the play. BU's Allison Alvarez legged out a bunt for a single as Dickerson advanced to third. The Bruins drew first blood on a passed ball, as Dickerson raced home and Alvarez cruised all the way over to second base. Another infield bunt by Sabrina Ryals enabled Alvarez to make the count 2-0 in favor of Belmont.
The hosts answered with two runs in the second to knot the game at 2-2. Torres led off with a single to right field and was replaced on first by freshman pinch runner Katie Williams. As freshman Nicole Murray was in the process of sacrificing her teammate over to second, the relay throw from the BU third baseman wound up in center field, scoring Williams and leaving Murray on third. A two-out double down the left field line off the bat of Phillips plated Murray with the tying run.
The Lady Vols seized the advantage with a six-run fifth frame to assume an 8-2 cushion. Fletcher started the stanza by rocking a triple to left and wound up scoring when pinch hitter Beavers' grounder was misplayed for an error. Mollet doubled to drive in Phillips, who had re-entered the game for Beavers, and then junior Janette Koshell stroked an RBI single up the middle to score Phillips. Venable followed with a two-bagger to left to provide the Lady Vols with a 6-2 lead.
A one-out gapper by Torres pushed Venable over to third before Murray delivered the first RBI single of her career into center field to have her teammate come across with another run. Phillips wound up socking another hit with two down to give Tennessee a tally courtesy of Torres.
Belmont narrowed the gap to 8-3 in the sixth with a two-out single into left by designated player Sara Koop that scored catcher Heidi Lane. However, Tennessee would tack on an additional run in the home half of the inning on an RBI double by Torres that scored Koshell, who had also smacked a double. The Bruins could move no closer as Poole went the distance with four strikeouts to even her season mark at 7-7. Leslie Day (8-18) took the loss for Belmont after going four innings and giving up seven runs. Dukehart came on in relief and tossed two full innings, yielding five hits and two runs.
Koshell and Torres paced the Big Orange attack with 3-for-4 efforts in game two, while Phillips contributed two hits and a couple of RBI toward UT's 12-hit total. Both Ryals and Koop managed two hits apiece to lead the Bruins' six-hit attack. Tennessee resumes action on Thursday night with a pair of games versus Radford (7-33). Action will begin at six o'clock in Tyson Park, where the Lady Vols are now 8-9 on the campaign.
