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Tennessee beats Washington in 7th at Women's College World Series

Washington hitters couldn't break through against UT pitching, setting the stage for the late-game dramatics.

Washington hitters couldn't break through against UT pitching, setting the stage for the late-game dramatics.

No. 9 hitter Tory Lewis singled up the middle to score pinch-runner Whitney Hammond with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, and Tennessee beat Washington 1-0 on Saturday in the winners' bracket of the Women's College World Series.

"Our kids fought from the very beginning," Tennessee co-coach Ralph Weekly said. "It's all about timely hitting and it took us awhile to get that timely hit, but the kids never quit. They never got their heads down and they never stopped fighting."

Ellen Renfroe (19-4) allowed two hits and struck out 10 for Tennessee, which will next face a team from the losers' bracket.

Tennessee (51-10) stranded 13 runners through six innings against Washington's Kaitlin Inglesby (23-8), leaving the bases loaded three times. In the seventh, Cheyanne Tarango reached on an infield single and Hammond ran for her.

"I thought we played a great game," Washington coach Heather Tarr said. "We dealt with some things that, I think, a lot of teams would have folded with, with regards to a really tight strike zone. So be it. That's what it was. I thought Kaitlyn Inglesby threw a great game and threw obviously well enough for us to win. Unfortunately, offensively, we couldn't string anything together."

Melissa Brown sacrificed Hammond to second base. Rainey Gaffin walked and Hannah Akamine lined out to Inglesby, who unsuccessfully tried to double Gaffin off first base. Hammond took advantage and raced to third base, setting up Lewis' game-winning hit.