SB Report: Fall Ball Recap

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Lady Vols closed their eight-game 2019 Fall Ball season recently with a pair of wins against Western Kentucky and Tusculum.

Over the last month, the Lady Vols welcomed several other notable teams including Duke, Middle Tennessee and UAB. In the stretch, Tennessee dropped one contest to the Blazers and went toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils, eventually edging its ACC foe 9-7.

Despite the fall contests amounting to a practice run before the spring, the Lady Vols decided to load the schedule with stout competition to prepare them for a competitive 2020 season where they face five programs that advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2019 spring during the first two weeks. Included in that group is Arizona, a 2019 Women's College World Series team.

"We purposely made it tough," said co-head coach Ralph Weekly. "We decided this year we weren't going to play community colleges. We wanted to play more Division 1 schools this fall, and it helped us a lot. Our loss helped us – we lost a 4-3 game to UAB, who had a bunch of experienced players. But, I think it's good to play as strong as competition as you can in the fall."

Newcomers Noticed
The Lady Vols welcomed nine newcomers to Rocky Top this fall, including eight freshmen and redshirt sophomore transfer Samantha Bender from Iona College.

The first-year Lady Vols proved quick on the uptake making explosive plays and finding some rhythm in the circle.

The standouts among Softball America's sixth-ranked freshman class were Woodinville, Wash., native Kiki Milloy and Land O'Lakes, Fla., native Callie Turner, who was a member of the USA Junior National Team.

A quick and powerful Milloy belted several yard balls through the fall season and put her full speediness on display in the season closer with an infield home run against Tusculum.

"Kiki Milloy is fast, she can track down balls in the outfield, and she has a ton of power," said co-head coach Karen Weekly. "We have not had an athlete like her in the program in quite a while, but she can do a lot of things, so we expect to get some of that power from her as well."

Ralph added: "For the first time, and we really feel good about this, all eight of the (freshmen) newcomers are competitive. And you know, sometimes you have freshmen get in and they're just not ready to go yet, but these kids are ready to go, and one of the freshmen is Callie Turner. She is a pitcher."

Collective Competition
With the freshmen expected to contribute quickly, the Lady Vols have challenged each other as much as they have outside opponents. The coaching staff considers that a good thing.

Normally, the spring lineup can be determined from fall performances, but the Weekly's have not finalized the starting nine.

"It's probably a good problem to have, because there's so much competition at some spots, and a lot of our newcomers are really pushing the veteran players, a lot of the veterans who didn't start all the time are really pushing kids that are returning starters," said Karen. "I think the biggest thing we learned is that we have a lot of depth, and there's a lot of competition.

"We lost a fall game, and we never like to do that and that's kind of unusual for us. Looking back, I think some of that is due to us not really having a solid lineup yet," she added. "Usually, by the end of fall, we have a solid lineup. So, we're a pretty deep team, and we have some really great scrimmages because of it, so I think that bodes well for us."

Pitching Possibilities
The Vols are hopeful that with the return of sophomore ace Ashley Rogers, who was named to the NFCA All-Region team and the SEC first team in her freshman campaign with a stellar 1.94 ERA and 21-7 win-loss record, they will have another commanding year in the circle.

"In the fall, you're trying to work on things, you're not necessarily going out there and looking for somebody to be in midseason form," Karen said. "So, you're wanting to expand your repertoire of pitches and really develop your game. But, she has looked better this fall than we've ever seen her. So, we're really excited about where she is."

Rogers was joined in the circle by a trio of newcomers in freshman Amanda Curran, Turner and Bender, who made 24 appearances and 11 starts for Iona.

"Behind (Rogers), we have a lot of inexperience. We've got two freshmen, and a redshirt sophomore transfer. All of those kids have shown moments of brilliance, and then moments of inexperience. So, it's just a matter of continuing to work with them.

"I think that all of them are very eager and have pretty good composure out there and really want to learn and really want to improve and understand what it means to pitch at Tennessee."

Shipman Shaping Up
The Orange and White roster is going to get a bolster with the return of sophomore Ally Shipman who was sidelined in 2019 with an injury.

Shipman, who was a vocal leader and huge support from the dugout during the 2019 campaign, did not play Fall Ball, but has recently been cleared to resume activities.

"She just got cleared to start hitting last week, and she didn't get cleared for our games yesterday, but she was cleared for our intrasquad games, and she looked really well," Ralph said. "You know, we came up one inning short of going to the World Series, and I think Shipman would have made a big difference last year. She's a quality player, and talk about power, she's definitely a power hitter."

Leadership like Shipman's is one of the highlights of the entire team.

"Ally Shipman was leading our team last year before she went down with an injury, but even after the injury she showed a lot of great leadership characteristics," Karen said. "I think we have a lot of good leadership from a lot of different classes on our team.

"What I see happening a lot is the older players are encouraging and helping the younger players. You'll see two kids that are competing neck and neck at a position and the veteran is giving the freshman assistance and teaching points. I think they recognize that competition is going to make us great not just competing against outside opponents but competing within."

Homegrown Talent
This year the Lady Vols roster boasts 10 members from the state of the Tennessee, including five freshmen: Madison Webber (Sevierville, Tenn.), Anna Hazelwood (Martin, Tenn.), Josie Willingham (Medon, Tenn.), KK McCrary (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) and Anna Fox (Columbia, Tenn.).

"They're all really good players, and the softball in Tennessee has improved so much that it's allowed us to do that," Ralph said. "Our whole starting infield were newcomers from Tennessee, and our starting catcher who is a sophomore is a Tennessee girl (Kaili Phillips - Ooltewah, Tenn.)."

UT opens the program's 25^th season with a two-weekend trip that begins in Tempe, Ariz., (Feb. 8-10) and ends in Puerto Vallarta Mexico (Feb. 13-15) for a pair of touted tournaments. The Lady Vols look to make their 16^th-consecutive postseason appearance after finishing 2019 with a 43-17 record and ranked 12^th/11^th nationally. The full 2020 schedule will be released in the coming weeks.

University of Tennessee Athletics

Players Mentioned

Kaili Phillips

Ashley Rogers

Ally Shipman

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