University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Arkansas
Arkansas Completes Sweep of Lady Vols With 5-3 Decision
April 29, 2000 | Softball
Tennessee Remains Winless in Fayetteville, Slides to 5-16 in Southeastern Conference
Badly needing a split of its twinbill against Western Division foe Arkansas after falling in Friday's opener, the Lady Vol softball team was stopped by the UA pitching duo Tammy Kincaid and Jennifer Bottoms and endured a 5-3 loss to complete its visit to Fayetteville. Jim Beitia's squad, 27-28 overall, now drops to 0-4 all-time at Lady'Back Yard and sees its conference record fall to an abysmal 5-16. The home team improved to 34-27 and 13-11 in the league with the pair of triumphs and extended its winning skein over UT to four games.
Kincaid would fan seven and surrender four hits in her five innings of work to pick up her third consecutive win against the Lady Vols. Now 17-12, the righty stopped UT twice at last year's SEC Tournament. Bottoms would hurl the sixth and seventh innings in relief to notch her third save of 2000.
For the second time on the day, Tennessee broke into the scoring column during its initial at bat. Junior Janette Koshell laced a two-out single up the middle off Kincaid and then had a successful swipe of second base. Soon after, senior Amanda Venable's grounder was misplayed for an error, allowing Koshell to score the unearned run and give the Orange a 1-0 lead.
The Lady'Backs would push across three runs in the third stanza on four hits off UT starter Leslie Poole to assume a 3-1 cushion. Sheri Wahrmund led off with a smash to the deepest part of the park for a triple and Dana Gulick would leg out an infield hit with one down to give the hosts runners on the corners. After Gulick advanced to second on catcher's indifference, Jen Cirigliano poked a two-run single to put Arkansas ahead, 2-1.
Following a liner that was snared by Venable for out number two, Danica Howlett would thread a triple down the right field line to plate Cirigliano with Arkansas' third run. The Lady Vols would load the bases with one down in the fourth and appeared to be in position to get right back into the game against Kincaid. Sophomore Maria Torres started the frame with a single to right and was then replaced by freshman pinch runner Stephanie Humphrey. A one-out fielder's choice by sophomore Adrianna Wilson would give UT a pair of runners aboard and junior Annie Fletcher reached on an infield error to fill the sacks. However, Kincaid would rebound to induce pop-outs by senior Nadia Cameron and April Phillips to halt the threat.
UA would tack on another run in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Brett Erickson that plated Aly Sartini. Sartini had opened the inning by reaching an a Tennessee miscue and went to second on a sacrifice by Kincaid. A single by Wahrmund into left pushed the runner over to third before Erickson came up.
Beitia's troops narrowed the gap to 4-2 in the sixth on a rather bizarre play. With junior Melissa Radley on third and Wilson at first and none out, Fletcher stroked a grounder to the Lady'Backs' second baseman Sartini. In a heads' up defensive play, she tagged Wilson and then raced over to nab Fletcher at first for the unassisted double play although Radley scored.
Arkansas countered with another run in the sixth to build its margin to 5-2 on a RBI by Erickson off reliever Jackie Beavers that plated pinch runner Katy Skaife. The Big Orange would again load the bases in the seventh but could manage just a single tally on an RBI groundout by Torres to finalize the margin at 5-3.
Poole went five innings, yielding nine hits and five runs (three earned) to drop to 9-9. Beavers pitched only the sixth stanza and was not charged with the lone run in that frame. Bottoms would give up two hits and a pair of runs during her two-inning relief stint. Tennessee will next travel to Baton Rouge to face #7 Louisiana State in a doubleheader beginning at noon CT on Sunday. The Tigers swept Eastern Division leader Kentucky tonight by scores of 2-0 and 7-0 to increase their latest winning streak to 10 games. LSU is now 49-8 overall and 22-2 in the SEC to lead the West by a game over Alabama (55-8/21-3 SEC).
