Thanks to Taylor Pannell’s eighth-inning home run, Tennessee softball ended its regular season on a high note, defeating Kentucky, 8-7.

The No. 3 Lady Vols (40-9, 19-5 SEC) had their hitting come alive across a weekend sweep of No. 24 Kentucky (30-21, 8-16), finishing it off with a Senior Day win.

“We were doing what we could do,” Pannell said. “We scored eight runs, and that’s pretty tough to do off this SEC pitching. Our pitchers helped us and held us in the game.”

Here are three takeaways from the win.

Shaky pitching

For the first time since Feb. 25, Ryleigh White started for the Lady Vols. She started strong, getting out of the first inning without allowing a hit.

In the second inning, White allowed Kentucky to tie the game with a two-run home run. After allowing a double, her short start was over, and Payton Gottshall took over.

On her Senior Day, Weekly thought it was important to give White the ball.

“Ryleigh is one of the hardest workers on this team,” Weekly said. “She cares about her teammates, and she’s been such a great teammate.”

Gottshall looked strong for a few innings, but she allowed a two-run home run in the fifth, ending her afternoon. Karlyn Pickens came in and looked shaky early, immediately conceding another home run.

Eventually, Pickens was able to get it together, producing three scoreless innings as a key part to Tennessee’s win.

Early start offensively

For the first time during the series, the Lady Vols started hot at the plate. Tennessee scored two runs in each of the first and second innings. Kiki Milloy opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning. Taylor Pannell added another run with a base hit, plating Jackie Kirkpatrick. McKenna Gibson’s double and Rylie West’s flyout drove in runs in the second inning.

In the fourth inning, the Lady Vols added three more runs, taking a 7-2 lead into the fifth.

“We had a lot of good things early in the game that showed me we were focused,” Weekly said. “I think maybe we got to 7-2 and had so many opportunities at the time or before then to blow it open.”

Because of the five-run lead built up in the early innings, the Lady Vols had breathing room down the stretch. Even though the bats weren’t performing at their best all game, Tennessee had breathing room — something it didn’t have for most of the series against Alabama.

Then, when the pressure was on Pannell, she was able to deliver.

Handling emotions

After winning the SEC regular season title and going through Senior Day, the Lady Vols had a lot of emotional weight. Last year in the same situation, Tennessee lost to South Carolina, closing the regular season with a loss.

That didn’t happen again. From the moment the Lady Vols got to Sherri Parker Lee Stadium, they were focused.

“That’s not easy to do,” Weekly said. “We talked about compartmentalizing things and understanding what we’re focused on when we’re in the cages warming up, what we’re focused on out here going through our warm-ups.”

Instead, Tennessee finished its season with a third SEC series sweep and will head to the SEC Tournament on a three-game winning streak.

After watching the six seniors bring their families onto the infield dirt, the Lady Vols had to take care of business on their behalf.

“This whole day was just about them and celebrating them,” Pannell said. “So giving them a series sweep and a dub on Senior Day was pretty cool.”