University of Tennessee Athletics
20 for 20: 10 Days Til Softball Season
January 27, 2015 | Softball
Only 10 days left until the start of the 2015 Tennessee softball season! Wow, time sure flies! Today we look back at the 2006 Lady Vols -- the second of Tennessee's six Women's College World Series teams.
Tennessee celebrates its 20th year of softball in 2015. In honor of the program's 20-year anniversary, we will count down the 20 days leading up to 2015 season opener on Feb. 6 against Ohio by reflecting on each Tennessee softball team, starting with the first-ever squad in 1996. We will also count down the days by jersey number, reflecting on the past players who wore that day's countdown number.
After the '05 squad set the bar pretty high with a third-place finish at the WCWS, the 2006 team rose to the challenge. Tennessee posted yet another 60-win season, going 61-12 en route to another third-place finish in the Women's College World Series. The Lady Vols stayed in the Top 6 from start to finish and opened the year with an impressive 24-game winning streak. UT played host in the Super Regionals for the first time, taking two out of three against Michigan to earn back-to-back trips to the Women's College World Series. Katherine Card, who seemed to always come up big in the postseason, had an RBI single in Game 3 of the Supers to lift UT to Oklahoma City.
Tennessee opened its '06 WCWS run by upsetting No. 1 UCLA. Down 2-0 headed into the sixth, Tonya Callahan singled and the Bruins committed an error to make the score 2-2. Kristi Durant drove in the go-ahead run and added one more in the seventh. After a loss to Northwestern, Tennessee bounced back in the loser's bracket, defeating Arizona State, 3-1, in nine frames that featured a clutch two-run homer by Jennifer Griffin. Monica Abbott tossed a two-hit shutout to lead Tennessee to a 1-0 win over Arizona the next day. However, the Wildcats answered with a 6-0 win in the next game to end Tennessee's season.
The 2006 roster featured Liane Horiuchi, Alicia Brown, Sarah Fekete, Sarah Vaughn, Danielle Pieroni, Katherine Card, Monica Abbott, Kenora Posey, Caitlin Ryan, Megan Rhodes, Shannon Doepking, Allison Fulmer, Lillian Hammond, Kortney Bell, India Chiles, Kristi Durant, Natalie Brock, Jennifer Griffin, Lindsay Schutzler and Tonya Callahan.
UT had five All-Americans in 2006, its most ever in a single season. Abbott earned All-America honors for the third time, Durant, Fekete and Schutzler were second-time honorees and Callahan received the first of her three All-America accolades. Abbott dominated the circle once again, going 44-10 with a 0.95 ERA, 531 strikeouts, 25 shutouts and 345.2 innings of work. Fekete led the nation with a .500 batting average (110-for-220) to go with 61 runs, 34 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. Schutzler hit .409 with 41 RBIs, 72 runs and 29 stolen bases. Durant batted .393 with 11 doubles and 51 RBIs. Callahan led the team in homers and RBIs once again, hitting .365 with 13 homers and 73 RBIs.
Abbott threw six no-hitters and one perfect game in '06. She and Megan Rhodes combined for two no-hitters and one perfect game.
The 2006 team proved that Tennessee had what it takes to stay at the top of the softball world.
JERSEY COUNTDOWN - #10
| No. 10 | |||||||||||
| No. | Player | Years | Pos. | GP-GS | Avg. | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB |
| 10 | Leslie Poole | 2000 | P | 21-13 | .178 | 45 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 10 | Blaine Teasley* | 2002-03 | OF | 125-119 | .263 | 339 | 66 | 89 | 15 | 50 | 14 |
| 10 | Megan Rhodes | 2005-08 | P | 1-0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Hannah McDonald | 2014 | OF | 3-0 | .000 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No. 10 | |||||||||||
| No. | Player | Years | Pos. | ERA | W-L | GS | CG | SH | IP | SO | |
| 10 | Leslie Poole | 2000 | P | 3.55 | 10-10 | 20 | 11 | 2 | 128.1 | 54 | |
| 10 | Megan Rhodes | 2005-08 | P | 1.77 | 67-22 | 96 | 37 | 19 | 570.1 | 726 | |
Looking Back...
#10 Blaine Teasley
2002-03 | OF | 5-7 | R/R | Tucson, Ariz.
Teasley joined Tennessee after an All-American career at Central Arizona College and made an immediate impact. Her 2002 junior season was one of the finest debut seasons by a Lady Vol as she hit .296 with 12 homers, eight doubles, two triples, 34 RBIs, 45 runs and 10 stolen bases. Her 45 runs and 31 walks led the team that season and her 12 homers were tied Adrianna Wilson for the team high.
THROWBACK NOTES FROM HER BIO!
- Her cousin is MLB second baseman Kelly Johnson.
- Regards her father as her biggest sports influence since he has kept her motivated, given her support and has worked with her since her youth playing days
#10 Megan Rhodes
2005-08 | P | 5-7 | R/R | Nashville, Tenn.
Rhodes was one of the greatest pitchers in Tennessee history. She amassed a 67-22 record, a 1.77 ERA and 726 strikeouts over 570.1 innings pitched over four impressive seasons in Knoxville. Rhodes ranks third in career ERA, sixth in appearances (135), fifth in starts (96), fifth in wins (67), sixth in win percentage (.753), eighth in complete games (37), fifth in shutouts (19), sixth in innings pitched and fourth in strikeouts (726). She tossed three individual no-hitters in her career and combined with Monica Abbott on three separate occasions for combined no-hitters. Rhodes burst onto the scene as a freshman and went 14-6 with a 1.62 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 2005. She followed that with a 17-2 record and 1.40 ERA as a sophomore in 2006. Rhodes ranked fourth in the nation in strikeouts-per-seven-innings at 11.7 in 2007 when she posted a 1.50 ERA and 13-3 record and racked up 186 strikeouts. She shouldered the bulk of the load in 2008, posting career highs of 23 wins, 11 complete games, 213.1 innings and 233 strikeouts. Rhodes was also a stellar student in the classroom as she was a Lowe's Senior CLASS Award Top 10 Finalist, a 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American and an NFCA Scholar-Athlete Team pick in 2005 and 2008.
THROWBACK NOTES FROM HER BIO!
- Spent four years in the marching band and five years in concert band at DLHS, playing both the piccolo and flute
- Nicknames are Mista, Swa, Meg, Megs, Megys
- Wears No. 10 because it was her summer ball number
