Tennessee softball’s Ashley Rogers is perfect

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Day one of the Lady Vol Challenge resulted in one Tennessee pitcher joining rare air.

Senior pitcher Ashley Rogers opened the afternoon spinning her first career-perfect game. She’d retire 15 consecutive East Carolina batters to record the 13th individual and 15th overall perfect game in program history.

The right-handed All-American struck out 12 for a new season-high. She also became the first Lady Vol to record a perfect game since Erin Gabriel in 2016.

Rogers said after the game, “I’m usually aware of what’s going on during the entirety of the game. I was like, I can’t say anything, I can’t think about it. I just need to go out there and throw one pitch at a time. Just to help us win. It was really cool to finally get one in the Tennessee uniform.”

Head Coach Karen Weekly said she couldn’t be more proud.

“Everyone is just so proud of her because of everything she’s gone through,” said Weekly. “Perfect games are really hard to come by; no-hitters are hard to come by. But man, she was dealing. So many batters were strike one, strike two, strike three, and sit down. [I’m] just so happy for her, she needed a day like that.”

Rogers’ performance was complemented by the Lady Vol offense. Tennessee picked up an 8-0 run-rule win to open its two-day home tournament.

Game two would be more of the same.

The Lady Vols took on UNC Greensboro. The Spartans came to Lee Stadium ranked second nationally in total home runs, sixth nationally per game. UNCG jumped on Tennessee early with a two-run home run in the first inning. But, the Spartans wouldn’t cross the dish again.

Graduate lefty Erin Edmoundson starred in the circle, racking up 10 Ks for her third double-digit strikeout performance of the season.

”It was a lot like how postseason will be like,” said Edmoundson. “We’ll face competitors that we haven’t really seen in a long time. We played UNC really early, and I think that’s what happens in the postseason, you’ll see people that you saw earlier in the season. I think it helps set us up for that doubleheader situation because we haven’t had one in a really long time. So I think it was a big change in environment.”

The Lady Vols would defeat UNCG 4-2.

Tennessee rounds out the 2022 Lady Vol Challenge with a rematch against the ECU Pirates Sunday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.