Lady Vols win twice behind strong pitching

The seventh-ranked Tennessee softball team won both games of a doubleheader Friday on the first day of the Buccaneer Invitational in North Charleston, S.C.

The Lady Vols started the day with a five-inning, 9-1 victory against UNC-Wilmington, then continued the dominance with an 8-1 victory against Charleston Southern.

Freshman Erin Gabriel pitched allowing one run and struck out five in throwing a complete game against UNC-Wilmington. She did not walk a batter.

Sophomore Cheyenne Tarango provided much of Tennessee’s offense, driving in four runs on two hits, including a three-run home run in the bottom of the third inning.

Freshman Lexi Overstreet went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in.

Against Charleston Southern (3-8), the Lady Vols (16-3) got another strong pitching performance, this time from Ivy Renfroe, who allowed one run and struck out seven in another complete-game performance.

Senior Lauren Gibson knocked in all three of her RBIs with a double in the fifth. Senior Raven Chavanne and junior Madison Shipman each were 2-for-4. The Lady Vols broke open a scoreless game with a seven-run fifth.

Tennessee plays UNC-Wilmington (6-9) and Valparaiso starting at 9 a.m. today.

Men’s Tennis: Tennessee lost 4-1 in its SEC opener against Georgia at the Dan MaGill Tennis Center in Athens, Ga.

Tennessee lost the doubles point on a tiebreaker then went on to lose three of the next four singles matches.

“When you come to Georgia, you’ve got a crowd that gets rambunctious, and they try and get you off your game,” UT coach Sam Winterbotham said. “We knew that coming in. We didn’t handle that particularly well. Every big point, it seemed we were the passive ones.”

The duo of Brandon Fickey and Hunter Reese secured the Vols’ only doubles win, while Mikelis Libietis earned Tennessee’s only singles point with a victory over Nathan Pasha.

Tennessee will play Georgia Tech at noon Sunday in Atlanta.