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Baton Rouge, Louisiana

No. 4 Lady Vols' Rogers silences No. 10 LSU with 9 Ks

262 days ago
Tennessee Athletics
Photo: Tennessee Athletics

BATON ROUGE, La. - Graduate Ashley Rogers pitched a gem Friday night as second-ranked Tennessee shutout No. 10 LSU 5-0 at Tiger Park to open its three-game series.

The righty tossed her second consecutive complete-game shutout in SEC play, allowing just a pair of hits and three walks. Rogers struck out nine in the win as she improved to 8-0 on the year. A native of Athens, Tennessee, she out-dueled LSU's Ali Kilponen who was previously undefeated. 

Tennessee (22-1, 4-0 SEC) extends its win streak to 17 with Friday night's win and has now recorded 13 shutouts during the run. The victory is also UT's third over a top-10 opponent this season. In those three games, UT has not allowed a run.

The Lady Vols' offense flipped the script as the bottom half of the lineup did most of the damage, going 4-for-8 with three runs scored and a pair of RBIs.

In the third, freshman Jamison Brockenbrough came through with UT's first hit of the game - a slap single to Kilponen - to bring up sophomore Katie Taylor. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Taylor crushed the next over the wall in right-center field to open the scoring. The two-run shot was her second of the season and second of her career.

Tennessee capitalized on two LSU mistakes later in the inning to tack on two more runs - increasing the lead to 4-0. Mackenzie Donihoo scored on a wild pitch before Kiki Milloy came home to score on a throwing error by Taylor Pleasants.

The Orange & White added an insurance run in the top half of the seventh to clinch its 5-0 win. Brockenbrough led off with a single up the middle and was moved around to third thanks to a Taylor sacrifice bunt and a groundout by Donihoo to the right side of the infield.

After a Milloy walk, sophomore Lair Beautae knocked a base hit through the middle of the diamond to plate Brockenbrough.

Rogers returned to the circle for the bottom of the seventh and worked a 1-2-3 half inning to close out the win.

LSU (23-3, 2-2 SEC) collected its hits from Ali Newland and Karli Petty and drew three walks on the night but stranded all five runners on base. Kilponen pitched the whole game for the Tigers, suffering the loss and dropping to 8-1 on the year.

UP NEXT

Tennessee and LSU return Saturday for game two of the series with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. ET. The game can be streamed on SEC Network+ or heard on WNML FM 99.1 or AM 990.