2013 Softball World Series Knoxville Regional Breakdown
#7 Tennessee, North Carolina State, James Madison, Longwood
Tennessee comes into the postseason having lost four of its last six, but three of those losses have been to Missouri, which earned the sixth seed nationally. This is the ninth consecutive year that the Vols are hosting a regional. In five of the past eight years, Tennessee has made it to the Women's College World Series, while losing in the regionals the other three years. Prior to those eight years, the Vols had only made the tournament twice in program history, never hosting at all. Tennessee has been an offensive machine pretty much all year. Entering this weekend's games, Tennessee ranked fourth in the nation in team batting average (.343), fourth in scoring (7.31 runs per game), 10th in slugging percentage (.541), 12th in stolen bases per game (1.90), 19th in team ERA (1.97) and 12th in fielding percentage (.974). Lauren Gibson leads the squad with 18 home runs and 66 RBIs.
Two of the teams in the Tennessee Regional, North Carolina State and Longwood, won the ACC and Big South, respectively, while James Madison earned an at-large bid. The Dukes' at-large bid is the first for a team from the Colonial Athletic Association in league history and just their second bid in school history. This is NC State's third overall trip to the NCAA Championship and first since 2007. North Carolina State has lost only twice since the beginning of April and is led offensively by Renada Davis, who has knocked 26 balls out of the yard and driven in 50. For James Madison, Sarah Mooney hit .413 with a school-record 17 home runs and 67 RBIs, adding 43 runs and 16 steals. Jailyn Ford hit .375 with 14 home runs, 45 RBIs and 37 runs scored while going 23-5 with a 1.66 ERA in 29 games started. The left-hander set a school record for strikeouts with 199 and complete games with 21. Longwood's Megan Baltzell has hit 30 home runs, which is tops in the country.
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