The No. 8 Texas Longhorns approached the primary recreation of the Knoxville Tremendous Regional matchup on Friday in opposition to Tennessee hopeful and feeling ready, however the actuality of the result proved in any other case.
Earlier than the beginning of Friday’s recreation, the Longhorns knew that they had an uphill battle going through the Volunteers. Taking part in in Knoxville, as a substitute of Crimson & Charline McCombs Area in Austin with a house discipline benefit, was going to be a problem.
“I’ll miss the followers greater than something,” Ashton Maloney, redshirt freshman and outfielder, stated. “It’s simply good having a house crowd, residence followers behind us. Clearly, taking part in away is a problem inside itself, however not with the ability to have our residence crowd could be troublesome.”
Volunteer Kiki Milloy, senior outfielder, was additionally seen to be a menace to the Texas pitchers even earlier than the beginning of the Knoxville Tremendous Regional sequence. With a .427 batting share, 55 RBIs and a 1.007 slugging share, Texas head coach Mike White knew the harm she was able to doing for Tennessee, however he had a plan to maintain her contained.
“Effectively, she’s not batting 1.000, she’s batting below .500, so she’s making an out half the time,” White stated. “We simply have to verify we get the half. That’s the essential factor. However now we have to verify we’re pitching rigorously and choose sure conditions to go at her. Hopefully, we are able to get some runs and be capable of problem her a bit bit, in any other case we’ll should pitch round her a bit bit.”
The Volunteers got here out to a robust begin on Friday, going through Texas sophomore and right-handed pitcher Mac Morgan. After the second inning, Tennessee was up by 4 runs.
Texas tried to slender the rating deficit within the third inning with a RBI single by junior outfielder Bella Dayton, nonetheless, the Volunteers bounced proper again within the fifth inning with a single-score RBI.
As predicted, Milloy is a harmful weapon for Tennessee and was walked by Morgan on her first plate look to be able to hold her out of the batter’s field for so long as attainable. Though Texas was capable of include Milloy to just one hit and one RBI from her three at bats, Milloy’s teammates have been capable of step as much as the plate.
The Volunteers defeated the Longhorns 5-2 on Friday, which marked Texas’ first loss within the NCAA Event.
