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Laura Mealer blasts pivotal two-run HR to give Tennessee 3-2 lead over Alabama in Knoxville Super Regional

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•05/24/24
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Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Tennessee Volunteers got off to a slow start in Friday’s Super Regional of the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament vs. Alabama. Their head coach, Karen Weekly, was confident things would turn around for her team eventually and they did in the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Tennessee slugger Laura Mealer blasted a pivotal two-run home run to give the Vols a 3-2 lead.

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Tennessee HC Karen Weekly was confident in the Vols

Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly won her fourth SEC Coach of the Year award this year. And in the bottom of the fourth inning, she took some time to speak with the ESPN2 broadcast crew. Even with the slow start, she was confident things would turn around.

Tennessee looked tight the first few innings of Friday’s game. What’s the feeling in the dugout from her team? “They’re not tight at all. I actually think they just had too much adrenaline in that first inning. We made some uncharacteristic, you know, defensive miscues. That’s not like us. We just rushed on the base hit to left field. You know, just keep it in front. Keep it a single. And we just got going too fast. Didn’t communicate real well on the ball up the middle where we had no shot at first,” Weekly explained.

“They’re good and I actually think we’ve taken some good swings where we’re really close to squaring some balls up,” the Vols head coach continued.

This is the third game this season that you’ve faced Kala Beaver. What does she think her team needs to do to put some more balls in play? “Just keep swinging. I’m actually pretty pleased with what we’re doing offensively. Defensively, we’ve just let leadoff runners on and just kind of rushed some plays. But I like the way we’re swinging. And I think if we keep doing that, we’ll score some balls up,” Weekly finished.

Alabama scored in the first inning off of a wild pitch from Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens. In the top of the second inning, the Tide scored again after Riley Valentine got on base, bringing home Marlie Giles. Tennessee then battled back in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring all three of their runs to take the lead over the Crimson Tide. And that would be the final result as the Vols won Game 1, 3-2.

The series is a best of three matchup between the two SEC rivals. Tennessee is now one win away from punching their tickets to the 2024 Women’s College World Series.