Pickens’ shutout leads Lady Vols to NCAA Tournament win

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Karlyn Pickens threw a complete game shutout with 12 punchouts to lead the Lady Vols past Dayton 3-0.

The sophomore went three up and three down in her first inning of work. She ended the first frame with three strikeouts.

However, the Lady Vols didn’t fair much better in the first. Kiki Milloy struck out, Taylor Pannell grounded out and, after McKenna Gibson was handed a free pass, Rylie West struck out looking.

Flyers stayed off the board in the top of the second, but the Lady Vols’ bats started swinging.

Zaida Puni walked. Then Giulia Koutsoyanpulos reached first off a Dayton mishap. Destiny Rodriguez was next up to bat. She launched what was meant to be a home run, however, Rodriguez passed Koutsyanpulos on the base paths. Rodriguez was ruled out and the hit was downgraded to a two-run single, scoring Puni and Koutsoyanpulos.

Pickens continued to serve punch outs from the circle, six of the Flyers’ first eight outs coming from strikeouts.

The action started to pick up once again for the Lady Vols in the bottom of the fifth. Taylor Pannell singled off the first pitch of the inning. Gibson walked putting two runners on base. Sophia Nugent drove in Pannell with an RBI single. Tennessee finished out the fifth inning with a 3-0 lead.

No score in the sixth gave the Flyers just one more chance to make something happen. However, the game was finished how it started, three up, three down.

Pickens threw her final strikeout of the afternoon for the final out. The flamethrower picked up her 20th win and 11th shutout this season.

UP NEXT: The Lady Vols will play Virginia on Saturday at 1 p.m.

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