Tennessee softball misses chance to clinch SEC title at Arkansas. Here's what we know.
Tennessee softball missed its chance to clinch the program's second-ever SEC regular season championship, losing its first series of the season to Arkansas.
No. 3 Tennessee (39-7, 17-4 SEC) fell 2-0 at No. 12 Arkansas (37-14, 13-8) on Monday after splitting the first two games of the series. The Lady Vols got runners on, but struggled to bring them home against freshman pitcher Hannah Camenzind and left eight runners on base Monday. Tennessee was held scoreless for the second time all season.
Tennessee will have the chance to win the SEC regular season title with two more wins in the last series of the season against South Carolina at home starting Friday.
Here's what we learned about Tennessee.
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Ashley Rogers returns, Karlyn Pickens has strong showing
Ashley Rogers and 2022 SEC Pitcher of the Year Chenise Delce both went seven innings in a gritty pitching battle to start the series.
Rogers came out triumphant, only allowing two hits and one run on an RBI-single. The lone Arkansas run was scored on a questionable obstruction call by the umpire.
After only pitching 2 ⅓ innings in the entire Florida series the previous week, Rogers looked like herself again Friday. Holding her out of the second two games against the Gators appeared more precautionary than anything, and the extra rest had Rogers in excellent form in a must-win game and the last inning Monday.
Freshman Karlyn Pickens had a strong outing Monday despite the loss. She allowed just four hits and struck out six in 5⅔ innings. She was also efficient, only throwing 78 pitches. Pickens gave up a two-run home run in the fourth, but immediately responded with two strikeouts and only allowed one more hit before being relieved by Rogers in the sixth.
It was a confidence-boosting performance for Pickens, who struggled against Florida, allowing 10 runs in the two opening innings of her two starts.
Zaida Puni has clutch hitting performance
The game was deadlocked at 1-1 Friday until junior infielder Zaida Puni stepped to the plate in the sixth.
There were two runners on and two outs already, but Puni came through with a timely double that brought both Kiki Milloy and Lair Beautae home and gave Tennessee the 3-1 win.
Puni, who's batting .363 with 40 RBIs this season, was the one to even the score Sunday after Tennessee went down 2-0 early. It was another double with two runners on and two outs to give the Lady Vols a breath of hope before they went down 6-2 in the sixth.
Puni added one more RBI in the final inning with a sacrifice fly as Tennessee made a late push. It was too little, too late for the Lady Vols, but Puni kept them alive with her timely hits in all three games.
Tennessee fielding sharp despite loss Monday
Mackenzie Donihoo ended up in the splits to snag a bouncing ball and keep it in the infield.
But Donihoo almost got the out from her place on the ground, too, launching the ball to first from the edge of the left outfield. The Arkansas runner was barely safe before Donihoo helped turn a double play for the last outs of the inning.
Puni got in on the impressive fielding plays Monday, too, with a bare-handed grab on a grounder to third. She didn't miss a beat before throwing it to first, barely getting beat by the runner on a throw that would have gotten most batters out.
Tennessee's fielding was overall much improved from a Florida series where it recorded seven errors, and it has only had 33 errors all season. The Lady Vols didn't commit any errors in the Arkansas series, and the only runs scored in the second two games were off home runs.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Unpacking Tennessee softball's first series loss of season vs Arkansas
