Tennessee softball coach Karen Weekly had a simple message for her team following Saturday’s uncharacteristic loss: flush it.
While the task was easier said than done, the Lady Vols delivered over the next two games. After losing 12-0 in game one, the Lady Vols clinched the series by winning the next two games 2-0 and 4-1, respectively.
“Everyone knows we’ve been struggling, and they never stopped fighting,” Weekly said. “You look at Saturday — I’m sure a lot of people wrote us off. We didn’t write ourselves off. We kept believing.”
The weekend started with a celebration for the three Lady Vol seniors, including pitcher Karlyn Pickens. Yet the celebration halted not long into Pickens’ Saturday start. She made it just 2.2 innings and exited the third with five runs to her line, with two of them being earned.
Weekly maintained that the game, from Pickens to the offense and the defense in between, was uncharacteristic on all fronts. On Saturday, the staff yielded nine free passes to first base, six walks and three hit-by-pitches.
The offense didn’t do any picking up either, recording just two hits all night, one from Sophia Knight to lead off the bottom of the first, and the other being a two-out double from Taelyn Holley in the second inning. Only one batter reached base the remainder of the game in the Lady Vols’ five-inning run-rule loss to open the series.
With all the momentum, the Crimson Tide’s red-hot offense lined up against Sage Mardjetko for the Lady Vols with a chance to win the series on Sunday. Mardjetko delivered one of the biggest starts of her career, a seven-inning shutout performance where she allowed just one hit, drowning any of the bad feelings left on the field the night prior.
“Just knowing that every game is a different game in this series and the SEC,” Mardjetko said on Sunday. “So flushing yesterday just coming out here and competing, doing whatever it took to give ourselves a chance.”
Even though Mardjetko didn’t need much help from the offense with her pitching, Emma Clarke and Gabby Leach brought it anyway with two separate solo home runs, which were the game’s only runs scored.
Two polar opposite games led to one rubber match game with all the implications.
The Lady Vols had to continue to flush away the feeling from Saturday. It wouldn’t get any easier as Jocelyn Briski, Alabama’s game one starter, returned to the circle on Monday.
Erin Nuwer started in opposition, but according to Weekly’s plan, she was taken out after her first time through the order, where she was replaced by Pickens.
Just over a day removed from a rough start for Pickens, all she could do was repeat the same message Weekly had been preaching all weekend long: flush it.
“That’s just part of the game, being able to flush games like that and move on to the next,” Pickens said. “(Mardjetko) did an outstanding job the next day to pick me up, gave me a time to just flush that performance and focus on my teammates.”
Pickens did just that. She finished the night by shutting the door on the Crimson Tide. She posted five innings, struck out 11 batters, walked none and allowed one home run on a solo shot in the seventh.
A statement performance from the Lady Vols, which can also serve as revenge for the last meeting these two teams had at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. The last time the rivals met on the diamond, Alabama stole the final two games of an NCAA Super Regional in 2024, ending the Lady Vols’ season.
Revenge was best served with cigars on the freshly painted Lady Vols logo in center field after the series win on Monday.
“They smoked cigars on that field,” Weekly said. “They celebrated on our logo. When somebody does that on your home field, you’re not going to forget it.”
While flushing out feelings was a theme, perhaps holding onto prior steam was an important factor in the Lady Vols’ series win. They face a quick turnaround before taking on Missouri on the road beginning Thursday, April 30, to close the regular season.
