Lee's opening night gives hope but leaves room for improvement

By Marcus Fitzsimmons

KNOXVILLE -- After a shaky beginning to the first chapter of the Sherri Parker Lee Softball Stadium story Tennessee christened its new home with an 8-2 win over BYU in the Tennessee Classic.

The Lady Vols trailed 2-1 after the Cougars' Angeline Quiocho, the national home-run leader in the young season, sent her eighth round tripper over the wall, just missing the new scoreboard and putting her name in the stadium's list of firsts. The shot, when coupled with a missed cut of a throw home in the third, put BYU ahead of the No. 5 Lady Vols and threatened to disrupt if not the grand opening -- scheduled for the April 12 visit by the United States Olympic team -- then at least the opening night.

"I got nervous looking at BYU's batting average earlier in the week. (Pitcher Christina) Trice had 46 strike outs in 26 innings coming in. They are a very good team and they will be in the NCAAs no question," UT co-head coach Ralph Weekly said in the team's new rec room postgame. "I don't think I get nervous but I get concerned when I see a really good team. I think there was a lot of stuff going on with opening the stadium. All the stuff that went on (Wednesday) during practice with everybody working here."

But the Lady Vols responded and overcame their youthful indiscretions in the first year AA -- After Abbott.

Sophomore Erinn Webb highlighted the outfield fence's lack of the yet to be installed distance marking signage crushing the first home run by a Lady Vol down the first base line in the bottom of the fourth. The scoreboard's video capacity wasn't yet capable of replaying Webb's game-tying dinger curving between the foul pole and the only tree remaining on the site before it rolled through the parking lot and stopped at the main gate to Regal Soccer Stadium.

The assembled media couldn't e-mail or post updates detailing UT's top-to-bottom fifth that plated four runs off Trice nor was food yet available in the box seats to help deaden the sight of BYU reliever Paige Affleck walking four consecutive batters in the sixth forcing Trice to return.

There was plenty of appreciation from the fans, who braved the cold and made the 5 p.m. start, as senior Megan Rhodes entered to a bases-loaded, no out jam in the sixth and calmly rang up Quiocho on strikes and kept the lead undamaged.

"We made a couple mistakes early but the team was strong enough to bounce back, Weekly said. "It's a cliche but I want us to get better every game. We're still making a lot of young team mistakes and we need to get better. We are not where we need to be or anywhere close right now, but the kids are fighting and finding a way to win. They could have folded in this game but they didn't they fought back."

And as proud as Weekly was about the come-back victory the former coach of the U.S. National team was even prouder of the new surroundings.

"This is the nicest facility I've ever played in or coached in," Weekly said. "I should just thank (athletic directors) Joan (Cronan) and Mike (Hamilton) and the University of Tennessee. Tennessee told us they would give us all the support we needed to be competitive nationally and this certainly does."

Lee Stadium is as different an animal from Tyson Park as this year's squad is from the freshly concluded Monica Abbott era.

"For starters we actually have a locker room," Rhodes said of the difference. "Our stands are massive compared to Tyson. We have this room, a film room, a training room instead of having to drive all over the place."

Cronan was spotted all over the park during the excitement -- watching from the bleachers, the seats, the boxes as the latest jewel in the Lady Vols' facilities' crown was unveiled.

"It was an exciting night. To come into a brand new stadium with a great season ahead of us just makes me very proud. Very proud of the team, the coaches, and the university for supporting women's athletics the way it has," the women's athletics director said. "The 2-1 game kind of scared this AD. I didn't want to lose our opening game but the bats came through at the right time. They're a young team, but I think they'll be a very good team."

The kinks of opening night will get ironed out for the new stadium over the course of the season. Cronan will see to that.

The hard job falls to the Weeklys who must iron the kinks out of a very young team facing some very large challenges while wearing a very large target.

Marcus Fitzsimmons is a sports reporter at The Daily Times. E-mail him at: marcus.fitzsimmons@thedailytimes.com