University of Tennessee Athletics
Vines & Arnold Earn SEC Weekly Honors
March 28, 2017 | Softball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Brooke Vines and Caylan Arnold both earned SEC weekly honors for their performances last week as announced by the Southeastern Conference this afternoon.
Vines was named the SEC Player of the Week while Arnold was dubbed SEC Freshman of the Week. This marks the first time that either player has earned SEC weekly honors in their careers. Vines is the 24th player in UT history to be named SEC Player of the Week and Arnold is just the 12th player in program history to earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors.
The duo led No. 19 Tennessee to a 4-0 week that included a series sweep over then No. 23 Ole Miss. All four of the Volunteers’ wins last week came against ranked teams.
Vines had a huge week to pace the Tennessee offensive attack. The sophomore led the team with a .727 batting average, eight hits, nine RBIs, a 1.273 slugging percentage and a .692 on-base percentage while recording multiple hits and RBIs in three of four games.
She tied her career high of three RBIs twice, hit her first triple of the year in a 9-2 win over then No. 25 North Carolina and hit her first home run of the season, a three-run shot, in Saturday’s series-clinching win over the Rebels. Four of Vines’ eight hits for the week drove in runs, and the California native now leads all players in the SEC with 12 RBIs in conference play.
Arnold posted a dominant week in the circle, earning the win in all three of her appearances for the week. The true freshman right-hander gave up just two earned runs in 14.1 innings pitched while earning three victories over ranked opponents.
The Maryville, Tenn., native had her best outing in Saturday’s series-clinching win over No. 23 Ole Miss, allowing just one unearned run in five innings while striking out eight batters, one off her career high. Arnold followed that performance by throwing 4.1 strong innings in relief in Sunday’s 4-1 victory to help the Vols earn the series sweep over the Rebels. With her two wins over the weekend, Arnold is now tied for second in the SEC with three victories in conference play and has four wins over ranked foes this season.
Tennessee is back in action this evening with a doubleheader against Liberty starting at 4 p.m. at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
