Tennessee freshman pitcher Cat Hosfield had stars in her eyes at Lee Softball Stadium on Sunday.

Quite literally.

But Hosfield and the Lady Vols overcame their nerves to rally for a 10-7 win over a UT alumni team full of former All-Americans in front of a crowd of about 2,000.

“I tried to calm myself down,’’ said Hosfield, who pitched the first two and last two innings for UT, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out four. “Technically, I got the win, but she did really good, and she hadn’t pitched in a long time.’’

“She’’ was Lady Vols legend Monica Abbott, the NCAA’s all-time leader in strikeouts, wins, innings pitched and appearances. Abbott, 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA on the U.S. Olympic silver medal team, pitched the first two innings and last inning for the alumni.

“This was for the alumni to get back together and have a good time,’’ said Abbott, who hadn’t pitched in six weeks.

Abbott re-entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the sixth. The alumni team led 7-5.

Abbott fanned UT freshmen Ashley Andrews and Jessica Spigner — EA Sports All-Americans — before it was ruled a pitch hit freshman D.D. Fryer.

It appeared the inside pitch hit the handle of Fryer’s bat. Instead, a run scored and the alumni team’s lead was 7-6.

UT junior Tiffany Huff hit a fly to left that India Chiles couldn’t handle, and two more runs scored, giving the Lady Vols an 8-7 lead.

“We wanted to win, but at the same time this was a social event for us,’’ said Chiles, a former All-American who was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and is finishing her nursing degree at UT.

UT sophomore Jen Lapicki, who committed two errors, found redemption by getting the only legitimate hit off Abbott, a two-run double down the right-field line that made it 10-7.

Former All-American Tonya Callahan, 1-for-3 with an RBI, said UT had a more competitive mindset.

“I felt like it was fun for us, but on the other side, I’m not so sure,’’ said Callahan, who’s finishing her degree at UT in Child and Family Studies. “That’s just the competitive person he (coach Ralph Weekly) is.’’

Weekly made no bones about it.

“We’d have played until midnight if we had to,’’ said Ralph Weekly, who coached the UT squad while his wife and co-head coach, Karen, led the alumni team. “But we knew Monica was only 50 percent, and I had a feeling they (the alumni) would run out of gas because they hadn’t played in a while.

“But they brought the challenge to us and they competed.’’

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.