COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 16 Tennessee softball team dropped a heartbreaker on the road Saturday night, falling to South Carolina, 3-2, in extra innings at the Carolina Softball Stadium.

With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the eighth, USC’s Riley Blampied popped the ball up behind home plate, which was caught by Tennessee first baseman Ashley Morgan for the out. However, Morgan and catcher Josie Willingham collided on the play as both players fell to the ground.

The play still live, the Gamecock’s Maddie Gallagher raced home to score the winning run.

“It is obviously a tough defeat to swallow,” Co-Head Coach Ralph Weekly said. “We fought back in the top of the seventh with our backs to the wall and got the runs we needed and I am so proud of the team for doing so. They never quit tonight. We’ll learn from this one and come back tomorrow ready for game two.”

South Carolina (23-15, 2-11 SEC) struck first in the bottom of the second as a passed ball allowed USC to take an early 1-0 lead. The Gamecocks extended their lead in the third on a double to left center from Mackenzie Boesel. The hit drove home Kenzi Maguire who reached on a single earlier in the inning.

The game remained 2-0 in South Carolina’s advantage until the top of the seventh when down to their final three outs, the Lady Vols (31-7, 4-6 SEC) hit back and tied it up at 2-2.

Chelsea Seggern led off the inning for UT and crushed a 2-2 pitch over the center field wall to cut into the deficit and breathe new life into the Lady Vols. The homer was Tennessee’s second hit of the day and its first run on the night.

In the very next at-bat, Ivy Davis took a 0-1 pitch and smoked it over the left field wall to tie the game up at 2-2. The long ball was Davis’ 12th of the season and gave UT just what it needed to extend the game.

After Ashley Rogers shutdown the Gamecocks in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, Tennessee was able to get one runner on base courtesy of a Cailin Hannon single to left but was unable to move her around to score.

South Carolina used a leadoff single to jump start its eighth inning, before a double off the wall put runners on second and third with nobody out. Tennessee intentionally walked the next batter, which ended in an out as the South Carolina player was not correctly entered into the game.

That still left runners in scoring position with one out as UT gave another free pass to load the bases. That brought up Blampied who hit the walk-off foul out to win the game for South Carolina.

In the circle for UT, Rogers tossed 7.2 innings with seven strikeouts, five walks, and allowed three runs on seven hits. The Alcoa, Tennessee, native suffered the loss and is now 18-5 on the year.

For South Carolina, Karsen Ochs made her SEC debut and tossed six innings, surrendering two runs on three hits. Leah Powell came on in relief, throwing two innings, and allowed just one hit as she picked up her seven win of the year.

UP NEXT
Tennessee and South Carolina play again Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. Game two of the series can be seen on SEC Network.

Box Score | Updated Overall Stats | Updated SEC Stats

-UT Athletics