University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Lady Vols Take Out Elon And MTSU At Reebok Invite
February 25, 2000 | Softball
The Tennessee Lady Vols responded well on Friday, Feb. 25 at the Reebok Invitational in Statesboro, Ga., notching wins over the Fightin' Christians of Elon and the Lady Raiders of Middle Tennessee State. After a seven-hour bus ride on Thursday evening, the Orange and White jumped all over Elon at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, crossing the plate six times in the top of the first, led by a flurry of hits beginning with lead-off hitter April Phillips' single to third base.
Jim Beitia's team would never look back, as it notched two more runs in the sixth stanza and five more in the seventh. Elon could muster only two runs, coming in the fourth inning off eventual winning pitcher Leslie Poole (2-1). Freshman Nicole Murray came in to relieve Poole in the fifth as the Lady Vols cruised to a 13-2 victory. UT had 18 hits to Elon's five in the contest that lasted just under an hour and a half.
Commenting on the win, Beitia said, "I was happy that we came out and controlled the game right from the start. I also think that the fact that we scored again late was a good sign for our team."
Tennessee took to Eagle Field again at 1:00 p.m. to take on intrastate foe MTSU, and again jumped out in the first inning, this time in the bottom half, at 3-0. The Lady Vols were all over Lady Raider pitcher Jenny Martinez (2-2) from the outset, with junior Janette Koshell and sophomore Adrianna Wilson slapping back-to-back doubles to the outfield fence pushing UT to an early 1-0 lead. Next up to the plate was senior Amanda Venable and her home run blast to deep left field gave Beitia's squad a 3-0 margin. UT would score only once more in the third, as senior Jackie Beavers (3-2) allowed only one run off five hits to MTSU in the win.
"Against MTSU, we played with a lot of heart," said Beitia. "We've played them a lot over the past couple of years, and we still played with great intensity. It's good to see that it looks like the middle part of our line up is getting untracked offensively."
Tennessee is now 6-5 overall and will face Georgia Southern (3-9) at 3:00 p.m. and Coastal Carolina (0-6) at 5:00 p.m. on Sat., Feb. 26.
