Lady Vols bats bash Virginia en route to Regional Final

(WJHL) – Third-seeded Tennessee softball used the power of four homer runs to run-rule Virginia in Saturday’s Knoxville Regional winner’s bracket matchup, 12-0.

The Lady Vols wasted no time, as Kiki Milloy and Taylor Pannell hammered back-to-back homers, making it 2-0. Five more runs came across in the second inning, including three tallies from a Sophia Nugent blast.

Rylie West rounded out the home-run hitting in the third inning with a three-run shot of her own, which extended to the lead to 11-0. Milloy’s RBI singe in the fourth rounded out the scoring.

Eight different Lady Vols registered a hit in the offensive display over the Cavaliers. But, the pitching played a major role in the victory, as well.

Payton Gottshall (20-4) pitched all 5.0 innings for UT, allowing just three hits and striking out five batters.

“When Ashley (Rogers) graduated, I think Payton and Karlyn both just welcomed the extra that was going to be on them and really wanted that,” Lady Vols head coach Karen Weekly explained. “I think that has been a key for us.”

“They both want the ball everyday. They show up for their team everyday. Literally there hasn’t one day this year that either of them said they aren’t feeling it or they’re under the weather or anything like that.”

Tennessee (42-10) will advance to Sunday’s Regional Championship game, which is now set to begin at 4 p.m.

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