Tennessee softball opened its NCAA regional with a narrow win over Northern Kentucky, but its offensive performance left much to be desired.
The No. 7 overall seed Lady Vols (43-10) won 3-1 against Northern Kentucky (26-24) at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium on May 15. But it wasn’t the kind of offensive outing Tennessee wanted to start the postseason with eight hits and only going 2-for-13 with runners on base against the No. 4 seed of the Knoxville regional.
Sophomore pitcher Erin Nuwer (15-1) got the start and pitched a strong game, only giving up one hit with one walk, seven strikeouts and no earned runs.
The Lady Vols will play the winner of No. 26 overall seed Virginia and Indiana on May 16 at 3 p.m. ET. The winner of that game advances to the regional final on May 17 at 2 p.m. while the loser drops to an elimination game against on May 16 at 8 p.m.
Northern Kentucky drops to the losers’ bracket on May 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Emma Clarke delivered the first run of the game for the Lady Vols with a solo home run in the second inning. The sophomore infielder swung at the first pitch she saw and sparked some offense, but the Lady Vols left the bases loaded, and then left two more runners on base in the third.
After NKU tied the game in the sixth inning, freshman and former Farragut star Elsa Morrison gave Tennessee an immediate response with a leadoff solo home run in the bottom half of the inning. Sophia Knight’s single and stolen base set up Gabby Leach to drive in a second run with a double.
Northern Kentucky scored its only run due to two fielding errors. Morgan Heinecke reached first base on an error by Clarke at second base, and then pinch runner Victoria Flores scored off an error by Maddi Rutan at third base.
Grounds crew has to fix broken clay on field midgame
After one of Nuwer’s pitched in the third inning, the first layer of clay at the edge of the circle broke where she landed.
The mini crater was large enough that the game had to be paused while the grounds crew fixed it. The broken top layer of clay had to be removed and a new layer was tamped down.
After Nuwer threw a few practice pitches on the new surface, the game resumed.
Knoxville regional schedule
Saturday, May 16
- Gates open at 2 p.m.
- 3 p.m. – Game 3 (Tennessee vs. Virginia-Indiana winner)
- 5:30 p.m. – Game 4 (Northern Kentucky vs. Virginia-Indiana loser)
- 8 p.m. – Game 5 (Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner)
Sunday, May 17
- Gates open at 1 p.m.
- 2 p.m. – Game 6 (Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner)
- 4:30 p.m. – Game 7 (if necessary)
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee softball opens NCAA regional with narrow win vs Northern Kentucky
