University of Tennessee Athletics
Ivy Renfroe's Masterful Effort Overshadowed
May 18, 2012 | Softball
May 18, 2012
Brian Rice
UTLadyVols.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- On a normal night a two-hit performance by Ivy Renfroe would be a cause for celebration in the Tennessee dugout, but Friday night at Lee Stadium was no normal night at the ballpark.
Renfroe's masterful performance was overshadowed by Miami University's Jessica Simpson and her five-hit shutout that left the Lady Volunteers one loss from elimination in the Knoxville Regional of the 2012 NCAA Softball Tournament.
"Ivy pitched fantastically," Tennessee co-head coach Ralph Weekly said. "When you are the No. 4 seed going against the No. 1 seed, you come in all fired up, and they played an outstanding game in every aspect. I don't know how many strikeouts she had, but you can't blame this on Ivy."
Renfroe gave up a pair of first-inning hits, a leadoff chopper from Kristie Fehrenbach that hit the ground just hard enough to pop over a leaping Raven Chavanne and a two-out bouncer up the middle from Daniela Torres that scored Fehrenbach. From that point, Renfroe was perfect, retiring the next 19 batters she faced. The junior from Jackson, Tenn. recorded seven strikeouts and walked no batters, but Renfroe was more concerned with the hits she allowed than the ones she prevented.
"It was my fault for just not coming out and setting the tone," Renfroe said of the first inning. "We were battling, it just didn't come out our way."
Third baseman Chavanne credited Renfroe for keeping Tennessee in the game, despite the lack of offensive production.
"Everyone in the infield was saying, `We have you.'" Chavanne said. "She did enough to win. Ivy pitched a great game, and this is regionals. All the teams here are good, they're going to get a hit. We don't expect her to get a shutout over a team in regionals. We should have scored more, she did her part."
The lack of production on offense was the postgame focus for Weekly.
"We had a lot of chances," he said. "We had several All-Americans go down in critical situations. We didn't execute. Our game plan was to see the ball down, and when you look at game film, you are going to see kids swinging over their heads. All the credit goes to Miami. They beat us. They just flat beat us. We couldn't answer their pitcher. We couldn't get two hits back to back. They jumped on us early and got one run, and that's all they needed. Hats not only off to their players but their pitcher and their coaching staff. But we aren't done yet."
