University of Tennessee Athletics
A Weekend In The Life - Tennessee Softball
April 22, 2015 | Softball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
Have you ever wondered what life is like on the road with a college team? UTSports.com provides this inside look at a weekend with the Tennessee Lady Volunteer softball team as they travel to Starkville, Mississippi for a three-game series with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Thursday, April 16
Entering the weekend, Scarlet McSwain has hit 10 home runs for Tennessee this season. Meghan Gregg has hit nine. Together, they comprise the left side of the starting infield for the No. 12 softball team in the country. But as freshmen, this afternoon they comprise part of the five-person crew of first-year players that loads the bus for the trip to Starkville with fellow players Lauren Irwin, C.J. McClain and Shianne Ybarra.
It is not hazing, it is a part of the job list for the freshmen. All classes have a list of duties, both at home and on the road. There are buckets of balls that have to be accounted for, nets and screens at home, a variety of things that each class takes responsibility for.
But under the bus, Tennessee's shortstop and third baseman grab every travel bag and every bat bag, one by one into the cargo hold of the bus that will take the team on the 398-mile journey.
Annie Aldrete is one of the players that brings both bags out to the bus, but what few outside of the softball family know is that the sophomore who was loading the bags herself as National Freshman of the Year last season will not play this weekend. She injured her left arm in a midweek game at East Tennessee State on Tuesday night and will miss the series.
Aldrete's is the latest in a slew of injuries to hit the Lady Vols. The health of the pitching staff has grown to be a real concern. Junior Erin Gabriel was hit on her pitching wrist by an errant ground ball in the morning practice prior to her start at Auburn two weeks ago. She had her Friday night start against LSU pushed back to Saturday to allow an extra day to heal, but still dealt with swelling and missed both midweek games. As the team boards the bus for Starkville, it is not clear if she will be able to throw all weekend, certainly not for the opener on Friday.
It is a similar situation for Gretchen Aucoin. Returning to her home state for the first time as a Lady Vol, the transfer from Texas Tech tweaked her shoulder warming up in the bullpen the same ETSU game that saw Aldrete injured. It did not stop her from clubbing two home runs in the 11-0 win over the Bucs, but an examination and treatment by team doctors on Thursday has her out of the pitcher's circle until at least Sunday. She is cleared to hit in the first two games, provided she is up to it.
The injuries are a bit of an ironic twist for a team that has been reasonably healthy as far as college teams go over the past few seasons. Gabriel lost most of her freshman season to a labrum tear in her hip that also impacted her sophomore campaign. But outside of a couple of short-term injuries here and there, injuries have been one thing that Tennessee has had to deal with. Now, at a pivotal point in the season, the team faces the first of back-to-back SEC road trips without their best overall player and potentially half the pitching staff.
The series against the Bulldogs will be crucial for a variety of reasons, the biggest being in the standings. The national rankings are what they are, but in SEC play and in overall there is not much that separates the two teams on paper.
That is the topic of conversation at the coaches' table at the first stop of the weekend, dinner at a Cracker Barrel in north Alabama. Co-head coach Ralph Weekly, who stands three wins shy of 1,200 for his career, produces a chart from his briefcase as the wait for dinner to arrive begins. It is similar to a graphic you will see from ESPN at the start of the broadcast, comparing the stats of each starting player at each position for the two teams.
A close look at the stats shows that, on paper, it is an even closer matchup than it appears. Mississippi State has the edge at four positions, Tennessee at the other four. The pitching staffs are nearly equal, leading Weekly to provide one of his standard quips. "That's why it's called fastpitch," he says.
The bus ride is uncommon as well. With midweek games on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday is both a travel day and an off day. That means the standard film sessions that are a travel staple are off-limits for this journey. Just study time followed by the Tennessee Baseball game on the bus satellite TV. It is nearly 11 p.m. CT by the time the bus pulls into the Hyatt Place in Columbia, Mississippi.
Friday, April 17
If you ever notice a college team staying in the same hotel you are, the best thing you can do is find out when they are coming down to enjoy the breakfast buffet. Then, have breakfast 30 minutes before them. There is no group that can decimate a breakfast spread, free or otherwise, like a college team.
Such is the situation at the Hyatt Place buffet at 8:31 a.m. Not a potato or sausage link to be found. The players themselves have discovered this breakfast secret as well, because they are well into their breakfasts one minute after the scheduled time. The players are in their morning practice gear, t-shirts and matching shorts, for a batting cage session at Mississippi State.
The three games of the series coincide with the Super Bulldog Weekend, an annual event at MSU around the spring football game to draw fans to other sports on campus. It also fills all the hotel rooms in the Starkville area, leaving Tennessee with a 25-minute drive to campus for games and practice.
Morning hitting session at Mississippi State cages pic.twitter.com/qrwAKEF8Yy
-- Lady Vol Softball (@LadyVol_Sftball) April 17, 2015
A look around the batting facility at MSU shows the level of the injury concerns that the team has for the weekend. Annie Aldrete and Gretchen Aucoin stand to the side, anchors of the UT lineup that will not pick up a bat in the workout that lasts less than an hour. Aldrete, does run things in one area during BP - the ping pong table.
Ping pong in the batting cage at MSU pic.twitter.com/wCyGV1GY28
-- Lady Vol Softball (@LadyVol_Sftball) April 17, 2015
As the team departs, another weekend concern is evident. Rain pours down on campus, something that is forecast for all three days. Ironically, the weather experts see Friday as the best chance to get in a game for the weekend. But the team cannot allow the forecast or even what they see out of the bus window on the drive back to the hotel to affect its preparation for the game. They carry on at all times as if the games will go off as scheduled until the very last moment.
The skies still appeared threatening as the team boarded the bus for the field hours later, but the rain had subsided. The grounds crew at MSU began pulling the tarp just as Tennessee arrived at the field, a positive sign for the chances of the game going off as scheduled.
The game itself was filled with fireworks and tense moments. After getting loose in pregame warm-ups, Aucoin was deemed good to go, a positive sign for the Tennessee lineup scheduled to face MSU ace Alexis Silkwood. Still, the batting order struggled at times. A Taylor Koenig home run gave UT an early lead, which grew to 2-0 on a Megan Geer sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. MSU countered with runs in the fifth an sixth innings, sending the game to the final frame tied, 2-2.
Aucoin was 0-2 at the plate on the night, but drew a walk to load the bases in the top of the seventh. A batter later, Geer brought home two runs with a ground ball off of the glove of MSU shortstop Kayla Winkfield, giving the lead back to UT.
As it was projected to be, the pitching was the story for the Lady Vols. Rainey Gaffin started the game, Cheyanne Tarango came on in relief in the sixth. After Aucoin re-entered the game in Tarango's spot in the lineup to hit in the top of the seventh, with she and Gabriel unable to pitch, the game would be Gaffin's to finish. A leadoff walk and an RBI double cut the lead to 4-3. The Bulldogs would get runners at second and third with no outs, but Gaffin induced a pair of comebackers to her for the first two outs and a grounder to Gregg for the final out at first on a close play.
The postgame meal at Longhorn Steakhouse had a celebratory tone, not just for the win but also for the birthday of freshman Shianne Ybarra. The team's gift to her was not singing at dinner, the coaching staff's gift was the team could order dessert following the meal.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY @ShianneYbarra! Have a great one Shianne! pic.twitter.com/SkfNwkBJKe
-- Lady Vol Softball (@LadyVol_Sftball) April 17, 2015
The final announcement before the team walked across the parking lot from dinner to the hotel was a schedule change for Saturday. With a rain-free window in the forecast, the second game moved up from an evening to a mid-afternoon start. The only real change in preparation for the team is the accompanying move up in the time of film and pregame meal.
Saturday, April 18
Melissa Brown and Kat Dotson combined for 389 hits, 25 home runs and three Women's College World Series appearances in their four years on the field for the Lady Vols from 2010-13. Now, they are back together in the program, Brown in her second year as a graduate manager, Dotson in her first. They team with former Rider University player Rachel Coleman to form a team responsible for the team video and laundry, along with a long list of additional duties that keep the program running.
One of these spots can be a great launching pad for a career in softball. Former Tennessee player Ashley Andrews spent the last two seasons in the spot Dotson now occupies and accepted a job as a full-time assistant at Washington following the 2014 season.
One of their tasks for the day is setting up the room where Tennessee will have a pregame film session that covers themselves in game one and scouting the pitchers they will see in game two. Having been burned over the years by hotels that promised big screen TVs, only to find a 25' in the meeting room, UT now travels with an HD projector, hooked up to one of the film laptops that the staff can use to quickly and easily break down multiple angles of each game.
In the opener, the Weeklys felt that the team had done a good job in executing the game plan at the pate against Silkwood and MSU, but showed film of both UT's approach at the plate and how other teams had approached the down-ball style that Silkwood relies on. The team also sees film on MSU's other pitchers in preparation for the second game of the series.
After a pregame meal in the same room, the team departs for Starkville, where the spring football game is ongoing and an overflow crowd is expected for softball. En route, the bus televisions are tuned into a highlight video prepared each week by Coleman to hype up the squad and tune their focus into the game.
This week's edition of the highlight film finishes with a foul ball from Annie Aldrete in last week's series against LSU. Odd to end on a foul ball? Sure. But this one took out one of the cameras mounted just above the dugout at Lee Stadium. As the shot fades to black with a softball headed right for the camera, the words "Beat Mississippi State" appear on the screen.
#UNIWatch @LadyVol_Sftball in white jerseys, orange pants, white socks today vs Mississippi State pic.twitter.com/jwG52fIrsa
-- Lady Vol Softball (@LadyVol_Sftball) April 18, 2015
The concern on the day is pitching more than hitting. Erin Gabriel has been cleared to throw, but the Weeklys want to try and hold her to two or three innings at most to try and maximize the pitching staff, even though Gretchen Aucoin will be able to return on Sunday. So Tennessee enters the game with the plan to start Cheyanne Tarango, bring on Gabriel in relief and close with Rainey Gaffin. As it would turn out, who needs a plan?
Tory Lewis, a fifth-year senior back with the team after sitting out the 2014 season with an injury, draws a leadoff walk. Shaliyah Geathers laid down a sacrifice bunt, but a miscommunication by the MSU infield left third base uncovered, so Lewis took third as well, never breaking stride. An errant throw to third allowed Lewis to score for a 1-0 lead. Tarango ran into a bit of trouble in the second inning, allowing three runs, but recovered to finish the frame.
Lexi Overstreet had a lot put on her shoulders for the weekend. Recruited as a highly-touted catcher out of the Atlanta area, the junior has had to focus on other positions to earn her spot in the lineup with Aldrete on the roster. But her natural ability all over the field has done just that. She has started in left field or third base for much of the season, but now with Aldrete out, Overstreet is back in her most familiar home.
She has been clutch at the plate when it has been most needed this season as well, including a walk-off home run in the seventh inning of the opener of the Georgia series. In game two against MSU, she comes up with a runner on and Tennessee down two in the top of the fourth inning and delivers a two-run bomb over the wall in left center to tie the game.
Though Gabriel got up to warm up during the second inning, Tarango will not need relief from her or anyone else on the afternoon. She holds the Bulldogs without a hit over the final three innings. The Tennessee offense loads the bases in each of its last three innings. They are only able to put two runs across in those three innings, each on a bases-loaded walk, but it is enough to take game two, 5-3.
The finish gets the team to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, a promise fulfilled for another win, in time to catch most of the Alabama-Auburn game shown on many of the screens in the restaurant. The players have no particular rooting interest, having friends on both teams, but watch each pitch intently.
Moving the game time up turns out to be a purely academic move, it never rains Saturday and the forecast for Sunday is for nothing but sun.
Sunday, April 19
In the early days of the Weeklys' tenure at Tennessee, Karen Weekly coached first base and would hand out M&M's to players that reached base. The tradition lapsed as others took the spot at first, but another former Lady Vol on staff brought it back in her own way this season.
Madison Shipman made the transition from being one of the greatest shortstops in Southeastern Conference history to a spot as the volunteer assistant on Tennessee's staff. As part of her duties, Shipman hands out Skittles at first base as players reach. Often, when a player gets a double, timeout will be called for the player to trot back to first to hand off pads and batting gloves to Shipman - and to get the Skittle.
She handed them out to three baserunners in the top of the first inning on Sunday afternoon, but Megan Geer had to come out of the dugout to get hers. Her grand slam gave UT a 4-0 lead in the first.
The home run was the 82nd of the season for UT, establishing a new program record. By the end of the day, the Tennessee program would have 86 after a five-home run performance by the Lady Vols, including another from Geer, Cheyanne Tarango's first homer of the season, Lexi Overstreet's second of the weekend and Megan Gregg's 10th of the year.
Despite a forecast of no rain, the teams sat out a 16-minute rain delay in the bottom of the first. Before and after the shower, a stiff wind sent the ball flying around the park. Mississippi State hit four home runs in addition to UT's five.
Both teams needed all four pitchers on their respective rosters. Gaffin started for Tennessee, Aucoin saw her first action in the circle, Tarango threw an inning and Gabriel came on to earn the win by finishing the final three frames.
UT won 16-8 in six innings, a game that was still nearly three hours long. Director of Operations Patrick Lawson had boxed lunches waiting in the bus seats of each member of the travel party for the start of the long ride home. The team showered and changed at Davis Wade Stadium and then settled in for the ride home.
The win was the 1,200th of Ralph Weekly's coaching career, which brought texts, calls and dozens of Twitter messages from friends, former players and fellow coaches. One of the calls was from Weekly's boss, UT Director of Athletics Dave Hart, who spent part of his Sunday listening to the radio broadcast of the game.
HUGE CONGRATS TO Ralph Weekly!! Today's 16-8 win vs. MSU is Ralph's 1,200th CAREER WIN! 9th coach to reach 1,200! pic.twitter.com/u7bJ0DKtK7
-- Lady Vol Softball (@LadyVol_Sftball) April 19, 2015
S/O to my husband and co-head coach twitterless Ralph on win #1200! Proud to share this journey with you #legend pic.twitter.com/2dwrnPntZB
-- Karen Weekly (@KarenWeekly) April 19, 2015
Ralph Weekly does not have a Twitter account, so Karen, who picked up her 900th win in March, spent part of the first hour of the ride home responding to the social media outpouring of congratulations for her husband.
As if it were any secret before, the team is more than occasionally motivated by food. Many programs restrict their teams from sweets during the season. The Tennessee bus stops at Dairy Queen.
Some teams don't allow players to have sweets during the season. The @LadyVol_Sftball team bus stops at Dairy Queen. pic.twitter.com/G7maxpAFuZ
-- Brian Rice (@briancrice) April 20, 2015
It is the final stop on the ride home, where the bus pulls into the parking lot at Lee Stadium just shy of midnight. The uncertainty of the weekend slowly gave way to optimism, to excitement.
I spy Rocky Top 👀🍊 #goodtobehome
-- Lauren Irwin (@laurwin_) April 20, 2015
In just days, the team will be back on the bus, on the way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the next SEC series. It will be another top-15 matchup for the Lady Vols, who remained ranked No. 12 following the sweep of the Bulldogs. It is just another week in the SEC, another week in the life of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers.
