University of Tennessee Athletics
PAIR OF ACES LEADING PITCHING EFFORTS AT TENNESSEE
May 19, 2005 | Softball
May 19, 2005
By Tom Weir, USA TODAY
KNOXVILLE -- At a university known in sports circles for sending 246 men to the NFL and 81 women to basketball's Final Four, featuring the best male-female combination of collegiate pitching talent in the nation is not expected.
But Tennessee can lay claim to that distinction this season, even on a Rocky Top campus where baseball and softball roots have never dug deep.
Tennessee junior right-hander Luke Hochevar (HO-chay-ver), 12-2 and tied for the NCAA Division I lead in wins, probably will be the first pitcher taken in the major league amateur draft June 7. And because of sophomore lefty Monica Abbott, who at 42-7 has the most Division I softball wins, the 11th-ranked Lady Vols will host an NCAA regional in softball for the first time this weekend.
"She throws fuzz," Hochevar says of Abbott. "Her fastball looks like it's 198 miles per hour. She's the real deal."
Says Abbott of Hochevar: "He's awesome. He has great presence on the mound."
Their mutual pitching domination this season marks the best dual-gender diamond play seen at Tennessee.
