Lady Vols overcome Ohio, advance to NCAA softball Super Regional at Georgia

Although the route was more difficult for a change, Tennessee got where it wanted to go Sunday afternoon.

After cruising to two NCAA softball tournament run-rule victories, the Lady Vols downshifted their way to a 5-1 Regional win over Ohio before a crowd of 1,742 at Lee Stadium.

The victory advanced No. 10 seed Tennessee (48-12) to next weekend's Super Regional against No. 7 seed Georgia(46-11) beginning on Friday (TV: ESPNU, 5 p.m.) in Athens, Ga.

"We did it a little bit differently than yesterday, but that's the sign of a good team," UT co-coach Karen Weekly said, referencing a 12-3 rout of James Madison on Saturday. "You're able to win with different facets of your game."

Two Ohio errors factored greatly in UT's two scoring innings. Starting pitcher Caylan Arnold (26-4) backed the good fortune by allowing just four hits and striking out eight while issuing no walks.

Now Tennessee, which has reached a super regional for the sixth time in seven years and the 10th time overall, gets the chance to show that it's a different team than the one that suffered two run-rule losses to the Bulldogs in Knoxville on the first two days of April.

"I think we were really worried about the big picture when we played Georgia then," said senior shortstop Meghan Gregg, who played her final home game, "and now we're just working on each pitch, each swing and each inning. You kind of saw that all throughout this weekend."

Here are three factors in the weekend's final victory:

Errors play a major part

In surviving Saturday's elimination games, Ohio won its first two NCAA tournament games in school history. The Bobcats had a chance for at least one more, but two errors hurt their cause.

Second baseman Taylor Saxton had to move to her left and come in on Ashley Morgan's bases-loaded, one-out grounder in the third. The ball leaked off the edge of her glove and into right field, allowing two runs to score.

Gregg referenced that error in saying, "just make the infield move."

In the sixth, third baseman Alex Day booted Amanda Ayala's two-out grounder. Two hits followed, including pinch-hitter Haley Bearden's two-run single.

Tennessee second baseman Aubrey Leach committed a throwing error in the fifth while trying to start a double play. But the Lady Vols threw out Allie Englant, who was trying to advance to second on the play. Arnold then recorded the third out, stranding a base runner at third.

Arnold unplugs Ohio's power

The top three hitters in Ohio's batting order – Mikayla Cooper, Day and Morgan Geno – came into the game with a combined 32 home runs this season. In three regional games, the trio was 7-for-29 with a homer, four RBIs and no strikeouts.

Against Arnold, they were 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts.

"For her to shut down their top three hitters was phenomenal with seven strikeouts," Weekly said. "She was dealing the pitches we needed at the time we needed them."

Bearden serves as closer

Bearden's pinch-hit single to right field wasn't nearly as dramatic as the two-run walk-off homer she blasted to beat LSU 6-4 last month. Still, Gregg thought the two runs it produced created a sense of finality.

"Haley doing that just brought all the momentum to our side," Gregg said. "After that hit, we really just saw some of their shoulders going down."