No. 4 Lady Vols fire on all cylinders, sweep No. 10 LSU

BATON ROUGE, La.- Holding a one-run lead in the sixth inning against No. .

Tennessee (24-1, 6-0 SEC) opened up an early lead on the Tigers, pushing across two runs in the first inning. Making his third start of the weekend and fifth start of the season, Sophomore Lair Beautae continued his hot streak when he lined a single to left field, scoring leadoff hitter Mackenzie Donihoo to open the game.

Later in the frame, Beautae came around for UT’s second run as he scored on a wild pitch.

LSU (23-5, 2-4 SEC) — which had been held scoreless by the Lady Vols through the first two games of the series — finally broke through Sunday in the fourth inning. The Tigers plated a pair of walks on a bloop single to left – cutting Tennessee’s lead to one.

After a quiet fifth inning for both teams, the Lady Vol bats responded in the sixth with three runs. Sophomore McKenna Gibson led off the frame with a high home run that curved around the left-field foul pole – giving UT an insurance run.

The Big Orange took the lead thanks to smart baserunning by freshman Amanda Ahlin and junior Giulia Koutsoyanopulos. With the duo standing on first and third with two outs, Ahlin stole second when Koutsoyanopulos singled for home. LSU cut the throw to another off and tried to get Koutsoyanopulos out at the plate but the Santa Clarita, California, native slid in safely on the tag.

Just three pitches later, Ahlin took advantage of an error by the Tigers’ second baseman to come home for Tennessee’s third run of the inning.

In the seventh, a pair of one-out singles set the table for Koutsoyanopulos to put the game out of reach. After struggling through seven pitches, the catcher crushed a three-run home run to left center, putting Tennessee up 9-2 and all but clinching the series sweep for the Lady Vols.

Graduate pitcher Ashley Rogers walked LSU’s first batter in the bottom of the seventh but the Tigers couldn’t take advantage as the Athens, Tennessee, native closed the door. He used a pair of strikeouts and a fielder’s choice to end the inning and tie the game.

UT used all three big arms to get the win as senior Payton Gottshall took the ball to start the game, throwing 3.1 innings. Gottshall allowed two LSU walks but was effective as he tallied four strikeouts. Freshman Karlyn Pickens came on in relief and threw 1.2 innings – registering three punchouts and giving up just one hit. The Weaverville, North Carolina, native picked up the win and is now 6-1 on the year.

Rogers pitched the final two innings for the Lady Vols, striking out three Tiger batters.

MAKE HISTORY

Tennessee is off to its best start in SEC play in program history – going 6-0 over the first two weekends of conference action.

TOP-10 SWEEP

With the sweep of No. 10 LSU, UT recorded its first three-game sweep of a top-10 opponent since taking three games from No. 7 Georgia March 28-30, 2015.

UP NEXT

Tennessee returns to Sherri Parker Lee Stadium Friday through Sunday, March 24-26 as it hosts Alabama.