# 3 Takeaways: Tennessee Lady Volunteers Edges Georgia Bulldogs 2-1 **Published:** 2026-05-22 — **By:** Stacy Stanfield **Category:** games — **Type:** game-takeaways **Source:** https://secscouts.com/news/tennessee-lady-vols-edge-georgia-2-1-series-sweep **Teams:** [Georgia](https://secscouts.com/georgia/), [Tennessee](https://secscouts.com/tennessee/) **Players:** [Sage - P Mardjetko](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13484), [Erin - P Nuwer](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13419), [Randi - P Roelling](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13437), [Emma Clarke](https://secscouts.com/players/emma-clarke), [Emily Digby](https://secscouts.com/players/emily-digby), [Ella Dodge](https://secscouts.com/players/ella-dodge), [Tyler Ellison](https://secscouts.com/players/tyler-ellison), [Jaydyn Goodwin](https://secscouts.com/players/jaydyn-goodwin), [Sarah Gordon](https://secscouts.com/players/sarah-gordon), [Sophia Knight](https://secscouts.com/players/sophia-knight), [Alannah Leach](https://secscouts.com/players/alannah-leach), [Gabby Leach](https://secscouts.com/players/gabby-leach), [Keirstin Roose](https://secscouts.com/players/?id=13436) --- # 3 Takeaways: Tennessee Edges Georgia 2-1 to Complete Series Sweep The Tennessee Lady Volunteers held off a late Georgia rally at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium to win 2-1, riding a Sophia Knight home run in the second inning and a dominant relief outing from Sage Mardjetko. The win pushed Tennessee to 18-9 in SEC play and extended its winning streak to five games, while Georgia (14-15 SEC) absorbed back-to-back losses to the Lady Vols after rolling through a midweek slate. ## Takeaway 1 — Sophia Knight and Sage Mardjetko delivered the game's only difference-makers Knight needed just one swing to author the decisive moment. The Tennessee leadoff threat, who entered the day batting a team-best .412 with a .462 on-base percentage, turned on a pitch in the bottom of the second and drove it to right field for a two-run shot that scored Gabby Leach. That blast accounted for every Tennessee run on a night when Georgia ace Randi Roelling otherwise dominated, scattering five hits across all seven innings with six strikeouts. The other half of the equation was Mardjetko's work in relief. Tennessee starter Erin Nuwer handled the first 1.1 innings before handing off, and Mardjetko proceeded to log 5.2 innings of two-hit, nine-strikeout ball. The lone Georgia run on her line was unearned in the spirit of how it scored — a wild pitch with Emily Digby on third in the seventh. Nine strikeouts against a Georgia lineup that features four regulars hitting .358 or better is the kind of outing that defines weekend rotations in May. ## Takeaway 2 — Georgia's offense couldn't cash in against Mardjetko's strikeout stuff The Bulldogs got the right hitters into the box and still couldn't string anything together. Sarah Gordon, who came in scorching at 8-for-15 (.533) with two homers over Georgia's previous five games, again led the lineup with a 2-for-3 day. Digby extended her own hot stretch with a 1-for-2, one-walk, one-run line, building on the 5-for-10 pace she carried into the series. But Georgia's middle-of-the-order anchors went silent: Keirstin Roose, the SEC home run threat with 23 long balls on the season, went 0-for-4, and Jaydyn Goodwin — Georgia's .416 hitter and .392 hitter in SEC play — also failed to record a hit in four trips. That is the swing factor Georgia has to solve. The Bulldogs' identity is built on power and on-base traffic at the top, with Goodwin (.454 OBP) and Tyler Ellison (.495 OBP) typically setting the table for Roose's bat. When Goodwin and Roose go a combined 0-for-8 with no extra-base damage, the math gets unforgiving — particularly against a Tennessee bullpen capable of putting nine strikeouts on the board in less than six innings. ## Takeaway 3 — Tennessee tightens its grip on a top-four SEC seed, Georgia's margin shrinks The scoreboard implications run in both directions. Tennessee moves to 18-9 in SEC play, sitting fourth in the conference standings behind Alabama (21-6), Oklahoma (20-6) and Texas (19-8), and is now within a single game of Texas for the No. 3 line. With Florida one game back at 18-8, Tennessee's five-game heater — which now includes a sweep of this Georgia series, a sweep of a Virginia midweek set, and a win over Northern Kentucky — has the Lady Vols positioned to host an NCAA Regional and potentially a Super Regional. Georgia's path is more precarious. Dropping to 14-15 in SEC play, the Bulldogs slide to eighth in the league and remain in a cluster with LSU (13-12) and Texas A&M (16-9) for tournament seeding. Georgia still has the offensive firepower to make a postseason run — Goodwin, Gordon and Roose remain among the most productive bats in the conference — but the inability to push more than one run across against Tennessee's bullpen exposes the kind of vulnerability that gets exposed quickly in a double-elimination format. With the SEC Tournament looming, every conference loss now compounds in seeding math the Bulldogs cannot afford to lose. --- *Original article: [3 Takeaways: Tennessee Lady Volunteers Edges Georgia Bulldogs 2-1](https://secscouts.com/news/tennessee-lady-vols-edge-georgia-2-1-series-sweep) — SEC Scouts*