Tennessee Softball 2023

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Sims, an outfielder and pitcher for the Chargers, led Westview to the program’s first state title last season. She earned the pitching win and hit two grand slams — a TSSAA tournament record — in the Class 2A state championship to key a 13-5 win over Forrest. Sims finished the year with a .478 batting average, 13 home runs and 55 RBIs. Westview finished 17-9 and Sims was named to the Jackson Sun's All-West Tennessee team.

The two-sport star also helped lead Westview to the 2022 and 2023 Class 2A girls basketball state championships.
Westview star McCall Sims commits to Lady Vols softball
 
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Laura Mealer only had half a second to react to the ball driven hard into the ground. The Middle Tennessee State transfer scooped the ball off the bounce right in front of her and threw the King batter out at first. It almost looked easy for Mealer, whose athleticism sets her apart in the infield. "She just makes the plays," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. "Sometimes it may not look fundamentally picture perfect, but she just knows how to make plays. She knows how to read the ball. I think she likes to be in that moment, and you can see the way she approaches things defensively and offensively."

...Nugent fills a direct need for Tennessee, because Weekly didn't want to go into the 2024 season without multiple options at catcher. Nugent's arrival gives Weekly freedom to move around Giulia Koutsoyanopulos, who has played at first base, catcher and in the outfield this fall..."The pitchers are very comfortable with her, because she's very relaxed behind the plate," Weekly said. "Her demeanor is just really easygoing. She's been a great addition to our team, just has fit right in, it's like she's been here forever."
How Tennessee softball transfers Laura Mealer, Sophia Nugent are already making an impact
 
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Tennessee loses 0-1. Played 8 full innings. We had 5 hits, no errors. Duke had 3 hits 1 error. We had an opportunity to score (and should’ve), but obstruction wasn’t called (very clearly catcher blocking the plate)

My takeaways: our defense was strong. Seemed very solid. Karen never made any defensive changes.
Bella Faw is going to be a superstar. She made some awesome plays. Laura is going to be a great addition for us offensively.
Jamison and Katie Taylor both pinch hit. KT got on base, Jamison hit a hard ground ball.

Payton looked great and kept it locked down. Charli looked improved as well.

Duke’s pitching was really good. We had some hard hit balls (Kiki hit it to the CF wall and was robbed) but most were right to a fielder.

We have some work to do with hitting but pitching and defense looked solid.

I’ll be back tomorrow at NC State!
 
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ladyvolswiftie said:
Tennessee loses 0-1. Played 8 full innings. We had 5 hits, no errors. Duke had 3 hits 1 error. We had an opportunity to score (and should’ve), but obstruction wasn’t called (very clearly catcher blocking the plate)

My takeaways: our defense was strong. Seemed very solid. Karen never made any defensive changes.
Bella Faw is going to be a superstar. She made some awesome plays. Laura is going to be a great addition for us offensively.
Jamison and Katie Taylor both pinch hit. KT got on base, Jamison hit a hard ground ball.

Payton looked great and kept it locked down. Charli looked improved as well.

Duke’s pitching was really good. We had some hard hit balls (Kiki hit it to the CF wall and was robbed) but most were right to a fielder.

We have some work to do with hitting but pitching and defense looked solid.

I’ll be back tomorrow at NC State!
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Thanks for the recap..
 
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NC STATE Lineup

Kiki CF
Riley West LF
Boo 1B
Laura SS
Donihoo 2B
Sophia DP
Panell 3rd
Katie Taylor RF
G C
White started as pitcher

NC State wins 7-4. It was an ugly game. We need to be able to hit consistently. Popping up the first pitch hasn’t worked, we need to be patient.

Karlyn came in after 2 2/3 innings. White left the game and it was 3-1. Then Karlyn walked in a run.

Panell had a triple, destiny sac fly and West had a 2 run homerun.
 
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ladyvolswiftie said:
NC STATE Lineup

Kiki CF
Riley West LF
Boo 1B
Laura SS
Donihoo 2B
Sophia DP
Panell 3rd
Katie Taylor RF
G C
White started as pitcher

NC State wins 7-4. It was an ugly game. We need to be able to hit consistently. Popping up the first pitch hasn’t worked, we need to be patient.

Karlyn came in after 2 2/3 innings. White left the game and it was 3-1. Then Karlyn walked in a run.

Panell had a triple, destiny sac fly and West had a 2 run homerun.
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Not good showing based on this, NC State isn’t a good ACC team overall. White has to give more innings and Pickens has to be a lockdown…if not we are in for a long season. Need White and Charli eat innings and limit the potential overuse/injury to Pickens and Payton.
 
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Majors said:
Not good showing based on this, NC State isn’t a good ACC team overall. White has to give more innings and Pickens has to be a lockdown…if not we are in for a long season. Need White and Charli ear innings and limit the potential overuse/injury to Pickens and Payton.
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definitely not a great showing. Charli looked good last night before she took a ball back to the leg. Karlyn looked like the same Karlyn from the end of the season last year. NC State was definitely on their a game.. we were C- at best
 
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After watching the 6 home games and getting the 2 reports from NC. Here are my two cents at this point. Based on fall ball our best lineup is Kiki, Rylie, and G in the OF and Taylor, Bella, Loo, and Boo in the IF. With Sophia at C and Laura DP. Zaida’s availability will probably set the lineup. The Leach twins will definitely fight for PT and ABs. I’m afraid Des, Katie, and Jamison might struggle to find PT. I think Charli is definitely our #3 but as I’ve said, this is all great but without Karlyn truly becoming an ace it’s not going to get us far.
 
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ladyvolswiftie said:
definitely not a great showing. Charli looked good last night before she took a ball back to the leg. Karlyn looked like the same Karlyn from the end of the season last year. NC State was definitely on their a game.. we were C- at best
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Karlyn has been that pitcher her whole career and you are crazy if you think you are going to get anything at this point different. Payton is going to have to put this team on her shoulders and be a work horse for this team to be successful. Charli is a 1 time through the lineup pitcher anything more a big inning is going to happen. Rylie is a true good teammate but she is just straight batting practice.

Karen pitch calling, not getting a 2023 recruit pitcher and no portal pitcher will be the teams achilles heel this year.

A lot of hype around this team this fall with returning everyone except Ashley. You see it all the time when a coach tries to play all the players to keep them happy and have players in different positions then they are used to or want to play. The team struggles and the team chemistry just isn’t there. Rather then setting the tone and expectation, like she has in the past.

I called it last year about this time that the Vols will win conference and a likely hood to go to the WCWS and everyone on here questioned it. But from what I have seen and read about this fall. This will be an underachieving year and with that comes girls leaving into the portal. Hopefully I’m wrong but just not a lot of energy around this team this fall just going through the motions type of vibe. To many seniors and 5year players.

Auburn and South Carolina will have the pitching to compete to win SEC. Arkansas and Alabama picked up a lot of new players and will be hungry to win the SEC again.

Lady Vols have the ability to win it again but not having there security blanket with Ashley Rogers has caused them to look over there shoulders all fall.They call it senioritis in high school and I think that could hurt them this spring also. It’s a different situation when your playing with a target on your back.
 
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TouchOfGrey said:
After watching the 6 home games and getting the 2 reports from NC. Here are my two cents at this point. Based on fall ball our best lineup is Kiki, Rylie, and G in the OF and Taylor, Bella, Loo, and Boo in the IF. With Sophia at C and Laura DP. Zaida’s availability will probably set the lineup. The Leach twins will definitely fight for PT and ABs. I’m afraid Des, Katie, and Jamison might struggle to find PT. I think Charli is definitely our #3 but as I’ve said, this is all great but without Karlyn truly becoming an ace it’s not going to get us far.
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I’m assuming Duke’s Lineup was Karen’s #1 lineup. Karen’s got her favorites with the pitching staff and fielders. Assuming it was Zaida’s throwing shoulder and she might be at 1B or DH because with the recovery time to be able to throw. G is a head scratcher since she only hit around .200 the last 3 years. Laura and Pannell looked to be the odd ones out but should be starters until they are beaten out and Dez, Katie and Jamison should be the first ones of the bench but instead will be forgotten about. Which that stuff happens in college softball nowadays but also got to be careful with players leaving for the portal.
 
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If G or Loo are still starting this season, that’s depressing unless they’ve learned how to hit. Because that either means the new players to the team are worse than them or Karen is playing favorites.
 
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Majors said:
Not good showing based on this, NC State isn’t a good ACC team overall. White has to give more innings and Pickens has to be a lockdown…if not we are in for a long season. Need White and Charli eat innings and limit the potential overuse/injury to Pickens and Payton.
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I wouldn’t look into it too much. Players are probably working on specific adjustments during these scrimmages. Pitchers may be working on a specific type of pitch and same for the batters.
 
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M40 said:
I wouldn’t look into it too much. Players are probably working on specific adjustments during these scrimmages. Pitchers may be working on a specific type of pitch and same for the batters.
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That may be true, but as bad as NC State is we should have handled them easily no matter the scenario. Does it mean the season is already forecasted, no. But a bad NC State team showing our Achilles early is concerning.
 
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