Tennessee Softball’s Elsa Morrison hit the game winner for the Lady Vols
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Knoxville Regional of the NCAA Softball Tournament opened with the Tennessee Lady Vols hosting the Northern Kentucky Norse at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
Elsa Morrison hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the sixth, and Tennessee won this one 3-1. Erin Nuwer pitched a complete game win and struck out seven with only one hit and one walk allowed.
”It’s a win, and in the postseason, that’s all that matters,” head coach Karen Weekly said afterward. “Survive and advance. And we’re just super grateful to be playing this time of year, that we get to be together, that we get to be at home where… I mean, the stadium is absolutely beautiful. The field’s beautiful…”
Nuwer, entered with a 14-1 record and 1.09 ERA, and made quick work of the Norse early on, retiring six consecutive in the first couple of innings, including a strikeout of Kenzie Gulley.
Northern Kentucky struggled with Nuwer’s mix and change of speeds, which induced weak contact.
After a quiet first inning for the Lady Vols, Emma Clarke hit a one out solo home run off of Alicia Flores to put Tennessee up 1-0 in the bottom of the second. That was homer number 11 on the season for Clarke, who came into the game slugging .546.
Sophia Knight gets on base at a high clip, entering with a .475 on base percentage, and with two on and two outs, she dropped a bunt single to load the bases, but Flores escaped further damage to leave the bases loaded. Knight is consistent, and Coach Weekly spoke to that.
”She’s just so versatile in what she can do,” Weekly said. “She’s really calm. You know, I think that’s what our team notices the most about her is you get the same Sophia every day, and she’s just Steady Eddy.”
Nuwer continued building the story of a dominant outing in the third inning, as she retired the side in order for the third consecutive inning. Northern Kentucky was uncomfortable at the plate and could not make solid contact.
”The drop ball was definitely working a lot,” Nuwer said. “Just throwing it hard, I focused a lot on the rise ball this whole year, and kind of just switching it up, I thought was really helpful.”
Tennessee struggled to get insurance runs, and left a total of six runners on base, hitting 1-for-7 through the first three innings. NKU’s Flores gave up four hits and three walks in that period with 61 pitches, but was fortunate with only one run allowed.
”What I saw was that I felt like we were being a little too hesitant in our swings,” Weekly said. “We knew what our plan was, but instead of being in a yes, yes mindset and then holding up, it felt like we were, ‘Is it, is it my strike?’ “Oh, yeah, it is.” And then when we swung, we were getting a lot of weak contact ’cause we were a little bit behind.”
Gulley was the first Norse baserunner to reach on a Nuwer fourth inning seven pitch walk with one out, but Nuwer and the Lady Vols’ defense left her standing back to back out to retire the side.
After Taelyn Holley led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, she advanced to third on a Bella Faw groundout. However, she was left stranded for Tennessee’s seventh runner left on base.
Sherri Parker Lee Stadium played a little big in this game, as the wind was minimal. The Lady Vols had a few hard hits that stayed in the park.
Northern Kentucky’s Lexy Morris broke Nuwer’s no hit bid in the fifth with a single to center, but in an attempt to stretch a double, Knight threw her out at second. Then Nuwer retired the side with her fourth strikeout of the game, fanning Emma Gin.
Flores was effective in the circle and got better as the game went on. After putting McKenzie Butt on with a two-out hit by pitch in the bottom of the fifth, Clarke went down looking on a 47-mile-per-hour changeup at the knees.
“I know that we talked about them being really aggressive,” Flores said afterward. “So I think that, again, we really talk about spinning the ball through the zone, but not only that, changing speeds. So I think just taking advantage of those really aggressive swings and making sure I’m spinning it through the zone, because I know it’ll take a hack and hopefully miss it.”
Morgan Heinecke reached on a Clark error to leadoff the sixth. Heinecke moved around to third on back to back sac bunts to get back to their best contact hitter in Gulley with two outs.
Then with an 0-2 count, Gulley reached on a fielding error by Madi Rutan that allowed Heinecke to tie the game up at one a piece. Nuwer answered with a strikeout of Jena Rhoads to get out of the side.
This game was tight and Tennessee needed a spark to get the Lady Vols back up, and Morrison delivered with her leadoff solo home run that went towards the train tracks in left.
”We talk a lot about playing with our eyes and trusting ourselves when we’re in big moments, when we’re just doing the little things,” Morrison said. “So I think in that whole at bat, it was just I was playing with my eyes, trusting the pitches, got into a 3-0 count, and then got my pitch to drive with 3-1.”
Knight reached with her second single of the game, stole second, and came home on a Gabby Leach two-out RBI double to increase the lead to 3-1. Tennessee had broken through on Flores with timely hitting.
That allowed Nuwer to return to the circle to slam the door shut and record the complete game win for the Lady Vols. Tennessee returns Saturday to face the winner of Indiana and Virginia at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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