Why series win over Alabama is important for Tennessee softball postseason

Tennessee proves it has two pitchers to rely on

Tennessee has arguably the best and deepest pitching staff in the country, and it proved it has two pitchers it can rely on in big moments.

Both Sage Mardjetko and Karlyn Pickens were stellar in the two wins. Mardjetko (11-1) threw a one-hitter in her fifth shutout of the season, looking like a starter who can win a game at the Women's College World Series.

Pickens has been up and down since returning from injury, but she was at her best in Game 3. After she gave up a solo home run and put a runner on second in the seventh inning, she struck out three straight for the win. Pickens (12-5) had 11 strikeouts with three hits allowed, one hit by pitch and one earned run in five innings.

"Karlyn pitched like Karlyn tonight," Weekly said. "When she threw that first changeup and just nailed it — nailed the speed, nailed the location, got the batter off time, I was like, OK, I think this is the night that we're back to Karlyn."

Tennessee makes season struggles count

Things are coming together for the Lady Vols at the right time, and their offense found ways to score against one of the country's best pitching staffs.

"Everybody knows we've been struggling, you know? And the thing is, they've never stopped fighting," Weekly said. "You look at Saturday — I mean, I'm sure a lot of people wrote us off and said, well, this team's done, and we didn't write ourselves off. We never have. We just kept believing."

The run-rule loss made Weekly rethink her approach. She went back to the message she preached to the team in February, which she had thought was getting boring and repetitive.

But hearing Weekly constantly talk about communicating at a high level, having great body language and eye contact, playing with their eyes and breathing was what Tennessee needed.

"I just had to get back to being who I am, which is consistent and boring," she said. "I told them, that's all I'm going to talk about the rest of the season. I'm not one for big, hype-up pregame speeches. I don't believe in it. You just show up every day and you consistently do good things."

Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee softball needed to win series vs Alabama for postseason