University of Tennessee Athletics
Softball Fall Practice: Day 4 Report
September 25, 2012 | Softball
Sept. 25, 2012
CO-HEAD COACH RALPH WEEKLY
"I think defense, even though it's tough, it's a lot easier than offense. I thought we did well. Our whole infield returns intact. In fact, we have eight starters back, so that makes it a little bit easier. I thought we looked good today."
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee softball team honed in on defensive work on Monday, its fourth day of fall practice at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
To start practice, infielders and outfielders split time in the batting cages and on the field to take grounders and shag fly balls. Later in the afternoon, the coaches ran the Lady Vols through a variety of drills, working on rundowns, base runner situations and timed speed around the bases.
"I thought the team looked really good," co-head coach Ralph Weekly said. "Of course we made some mistakes, but today was a day that we put toward defense: first and third, rundowns, cutoffs and those kind of plays. Everybody worked hard and the throws were good. The main thing is the work ethic.
Effort was good and I was pleased with the attitude and pleased with the way they came out and wanted to play hard."
Defense was a key part of Tennessee's run to the Women's College World Series in 2012. UT led the nation in team fielding percentage with a .982 mark.
SHIPMAN'S MINDSET STAYS ON COURSE DURING FALL PRACTICE
Junior All-American shortstop Madison Shipman is coming off a banner sophomore year in which she hit .311 with 10 homers and a team-high 63 RBI. At the start of her third fall season with the Lady Vols and said that she and her teammates approach the fall practices and games with the same mentality as the regular season.
"We try to go as hard as we can every single practice," Shipman said. "We know we only have a few before we start playing and stuff like that. So we try to approach every practice as game-like as possible."
LEWIS SEES TEAM IMPROVING WITH EACH PRACTICE
Junior outfielder Tory Lewis said that the team has continued to get sharper with each practice this fall. To Lewis, working the throwing arm back into shape makes shaking off the defensive rust a little more difficult than shaking off the rust in the batting cage.
"Defense is always a lot harder to shake off rust for because your arms get sore," Lewis said. "So, you have to make sure you come out here prepared to throw a lot because the most important time of the year is getting your defense together."
