Women’s College World Series: Recap, Lady Vols beat Oklahoma State to advance to the semifinals behind stellar defensive play

Lady Vols have a date with the Seminoles.

Following yesterday’s beatdown loss to the top-seed Oklahoma Sooners, Tennessee got another crack against a team from the OK State, the sixth-seeded Oklahoma State Cowgirls.

In a do-or-die elimination game, Tennessee once again looked upon their senior ace Ashley Rogers to carry them from inside the circle — and she proved that you don’t need your best stuff to still be incredibly effective.

Rogers labored for much of this game, throwing 89 pitches, 55 strikes, through her first four innings of work, but ended up going the distance, allowing just one run on 135 pitches. She was aided by some outstanding defense behind her, including diving plays from All-American, prime-Barry Bonds reincarnated as a softball player Kiki Milloy and senior infielder Mackenzie Donihoo, as well as a beautiful relay to save a run in the bottom of the 4th inning.

After notching just one hit yesterday, Tennessee’s lineup was finally able to get something going in the bottom of the third inning scoring two runs including an RBI from Ms. Postseason herself, Zaida Puni.

Tennessee was able to add an insurance run in the bottom of the 5th after the ball squeaked away from shortstop Kiley Naomi on an unsuccessful attempt to catch Rylie West stealing.

Despite the win, the Lady Vols offense still struggled, mustering only three hits and batting .222 (2-9) with runners in scoring position — something that will need to change if they hope to advance to the WCWS Final.

Tennessee will now play the three-seed Florida St Seminoles tomorrow, June 5 at 7:00pm ET on ESPN. You can find a full boxscore of today’s game here.