The 2026 regular season for Karen Weekly and her softball team has come to a close, meaning the thrill and emotion of the postseason is right around the corner.
Despite dropping the series finale to the Tigers on Saturday, the Lady Vols (42-9, 16-8 SEC) still claimed two of the three games in Columbia, Missouri.
“They’re a very good team,” Weekly said. “There’s a reason that they have the number of wins they have in the SEC. There’s a reason they’ve played as many close games as they have all year long. We knew this was going to be tough coming in here.”
The Tigers (28-28, 9-15 SEC) stayed hovering the .500 mark with Saturday’s 4-3 win, still looking to find a way into the postseason. The Lady Vols kicked off the series with a win, yet the offense never found a consistent footing, scoring no more than four runs in any of the contests.
Makenzie Butt started the scoring on Thursday with a big pinch-hit single, driving in the first two runs of the weekend. Alannah Leach added another run after launching a solo home run in the top of the sixth. By the end of the series, Leach had a team-high 12 home runs on the season.
Sage Mardjetko started the first game, but only lasted 0.2 innings while walking three batters. Karlyn Pickens entered in relief and didn’t look back, finishing the game with nine strikeouts, four hits, one walk and one earned run over 6.1 innings. Pickens, as well as timely hitting from Leach and Butt, landed the Lady Vols’ opening win.
Mardjetko and Pickens once again were tasked with the Saturday game, Mardjetko starting with five solid innings, allowing five hits, one earned run, two walks and seven strikeouts against the Tigers. Mardjetko had four of her first five hitters of the game reach safely, yet only one run crossed.
“That was big time getting out of that first inning with only one run,” Weekly said. “To limit the damage to that was huge. And that speaks to (Mardjetko) and the competitor she is. I thought she got stronger as the game went along.”
Ella Dodge added three RBIs in Friday’s win, while Butt once again added some timely pinch-hitting. She had just three at-bats all weekend but tallied two big hits.
“(Friday) felt a whole lot like (Thursday) in the way that game came down to the wire and the score and everything,” Weekly said. “What I really liked was how we strung some things together. (Dodge) got us going, obviously, with that massive home run, but then you have (Bella Faw) get us going in an inning with two outs.”
Once it got to Saturday, the Lady Vols had claimed a series win, yet the flame started to falter, and Erin Nuwer, in her first appearance of the weekend, allowed three walks over three innings, despite having just one earned run.
The offense mustered just three runs yet again — a failure to produce that has been consistent down the stretch. The Lady Vols’ offense hasn’t scored more than four runs since the series finale against Kentucky on April 13.
“We’re not going to let our emotions get involved,” Weekly said. “It’s not about me, it’s not about my at-bat. It’s about the team, and it’s about me saying, ‘Yep, I’m going to stick to the plan, and I’m going to be committed 100%.’”
The team enters the SEC Tournament as the fifth seed, beginning May 6.
