The freshmen duo of Aubrey Leach and Brooke Vines went 7-for-8 with five RBIs in Tennessee's 11-8 win over the Aggies on Sunday.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- No. 17 Tennessee continued its hot hitting in Sunday's 11-8 victory over No. 10 Texas A&M to complete the series sweep and remain undefeated at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium this season.
The freshmen duo of Aubrey Leach and Brooke Vines, batting one and two in the order, combined to go 7-for-8 with five runs and five RBIs on the afternoon. Leach set new career highs with four hits and four runs in the game. Sophomore Meghan Gregg also had a great day at the plate with two hits and three RBIs.The Volunteers (31-10, 10-5 SEC) scored 11 runs for the second straight game and tallied 30 over the
three games against the Aggies this weekend en route to their third SEC series sweep at home this season. They also scored in all but four innings of the series and scored in all but one inning in the final two games of the weekend.
Erin Gabriel pitched 6.1 innings and struck out 10 Aggies in her 14th win of the season. At one point the senior from Poland, Ohio retired 12 straight batters after a shaky first inning.
Texas A&M (31-9, 5-7 SEC) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after drawing a walk and hitting three singles in the top of the first. Ashley Walters and Tori Vidales both drove in runs with back-to-back singles after Keeli Milligan led the game off with a walk and Kaitlyn Alderink followed with a single.
The Vols got a run back in the bottom of the first to cut the Aggie lead in half. Leach led off the inning with the first of her four hits to extend her hit streak to 11 games. She came around to score on an RBI single by Gregg later in the inning to get UT on the board.
Gabriel bounced back from her first-inning struggles by striking out the side in the top of the second. The offense carried that momentum to the plate, scoring a pair of runs to take a 3-2 lead. Shaliyah Geathers was hit by a pitched and scored all the way from first on a double to the gap by Leach to tie the game at two. Vines followed that with an RBI single to plate Leach and put the Vols up by one.
Gregg gave Tennessee some breathing room in the bottom of the fourth with her second hit of the afternoon, extending the lead to 5-2. The Williamson, Ga., native roped an two-out, RBI double down the left-field line to score Leach and Vines, who both reached on infield singles earlier in the inning.
The runs kept coming for the Big Orange in the home half of the fifth inning. Leach continued her stellar day at the plate with a two-run double before Vines drove in her second run of the game with a single to left field. Leach came in to score her fourth run of the game on a throwing error from the Aggies' catcher to pump the lead up to 9-2.
Texas A&M never quit, however, responding with four runs in the top of the sixth to trim the Tennessee lead to just three. Vidales singled in a run before Kristen Cuyos and Kayla Ober both doubled to drive in three more runs and cut the lead to 9-6.
The Orange and White capitalized on a defensive miscue by Texas A&M in the bottom of the sixth as Lexi Overstreet scored all the way from first after an error by Vidales at first base. UT added another run later in the inning with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Geathers, giving the Vols an 11-6 advantage heading into the seventh.
The Aggies kept battling and were able to score another pair of runs in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Walters and a solo home run by Vidales. That would be as close as they would get though as Gabriel struck out Cuyos swinging to end the game.
Tennessee is now 17-0 at home this season, including 9-0 in SEC play with sweeps over Arkansas, Mississippi State and Texas A&M. The Vols will be on the road next weekend to face No. 10/11 Georgia in Athens on Saturday, Sunday and Monday before returning home on April 20 to take on Furman.
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