Tennessee softball’s social media account didn’t need any words 30 minutes before Sunday’s game, just a shadow image of a certain pitcher that everyone knew was Karlyn Pickens. After nearly two weeks, the All-American would return to the circle against Mississippi State.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Pickens issued her second consecutive walk with Tennessee clinging to a 2-1 lead, and Karen Weekly made her way to the circle with Sage Mardjetko warming up in the bullpen.

Pickens had returned to action after an arm strain, and the senior made her 2026 SEC debut in Starkville. It would have been two runners on after a Bulldog runner walked and easily swiped second, but shortstop Bella Faw alertly kept her glove on the runner, whose hand slipped off the base by maybe an inch. A review overturned the safe call.

“Just when I think I can’t be any more impressed with her, she does something that impresses me even more,” said Tennessee coach Karen Weekly, whose postgame remarks can be viewed HERE. “Our plan was four innings, and not because of injury, because once she felt good, we knew we were in a good place, but really just not to ask her to do too much after an 11-day layoff.

“We got to the end of four, she wasn’t as sharp, which you don’t expect her to be because of that layoff, wasn’t landing her pitches, timing was a little rough. But she said, ‘Look, can I stay in?’ And I was like, ‘Well, heck yeah,’ because that’s who she is.”

Pickens had been in the dugout for every game since feeling pain in her right pitching arm on March 3 against Belmont. She had already stayed in Sunday’s game longer than planned and made a case to keep going.

“One thing about me is I love competing,” said Pickens, whose post-game remarks can be viewed HERE. “When I’m out there, I’m going to be honest about how I’m feeling and if it’s best for relief to go in, but in that moment, I felt good. I was honest about that, and Karen trusts me with the ball. I just wanted the ball, wanted to compete, wanted to see how far I could go.”

The answer was a complete seven-inning game to improve her record to 7-0 with six strikeouts, four walks and one hit. Pickens threw 111 pitches.

The Lady Vols took a 1-0 lead after Taelyn Holley doubled down the left field line to start the third inning, advanced to third on a bunt by Sophia Knight and scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead in the third. Mississippi State answered with a  home run to tie it at 1-1. Emma Clarke put Tennessee back up 2-1 in the fourth with a home run.

That brought Tennessee to the fifth inning and a meeting in the circle.

“She’s such a competitor that she doesn’t care I don’t have my best stuff. I’m going to compete, and I’m going to go win, and she put herself out there for her team,” Weekly said. “That’s just who she is. There’s not a better teammate or somebody with more humility, but also more confidence and belief in herself. I have a tremendous amount of respect for an athlete who wants the ball even when they know they’re not at 100%.”

The score remained 2-1 in the seventh inning when Tennessee loaded the bases, but the next two batters struck out. An already raucous crowd was in full throat when Ella Dodge came to the plate. Dodge hit a two-out, two strike pitch up the middle on a 1-2 count to give Tennessee a 4-1 lead. That was all the cushion that Pickens needed to finish it.

“That’s huge momentum for us,” Pickens said. “They had the momentum in that moment, and she sucked it right out of them. And then, for me, too, going in there, having a few runs on the board made my job a whole lot easier. Amazing defense from everybody, overall amazing fight from this team and amazing play all the way around.”

The Lady Vols won the series against Mississippi State with wins on Friday and Sunday in between Saturday’s loss – the first of the season – and are now 27-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC.

“I just loved our response (to the loss),” Weekly said. “I loved our body language, our eye contact, the way we were resetting, the way we were communicating with each other in the dugout.”

Tennessee will return to the road for a three-game series against Florida in Gainesville on March 20-22.

BASKETBALL

Tennessee remains on a list of one as the only team to play in every NCAA tourney since the postseason event began in 1982 and will debut in the 44th edition this Friday, March 20, as a No. 10 seed against No. 7 seed NC State in a rematch of the season opener. The Lady Vols are 16-13, while NC State is 20-10.

The Wolfpack prevailed 80-77 on Nov. 4, 2025, in Greensboro. The two teams will meet again in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the first round at the Crisler Center located on the campus of the University of Michigan. No. 2 seed Michigan (25-6) and No. 15 seed Holy Cross (23-9) will meet in the first round. The winners will match up March 22 in the second round.

“I don’t love having to play a team that we’ve already played, but I think we’re both very different teams,” said Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell, whose Monday media session can be viewed HERE and read HERE. “We’ve both been through a lot since that game, so it’s going to be kind of not a rematch, if that makes sense. We’re both different.”

The Lady Vols sixth-place finish in the SEC and NET ranking cleared the way for a tourney bid despite the losses to end the regular season and one-and-done in the SEC tourney. The question mark was the seed. That was answered at the Selection Show on Sunday night, and the team celebrated when Tennessee’s name popped up on the screen.

“I think that their reaction was the reaction that you always want to see as a coach,” Caldwell said. “You want to have some life. You want to be fired up, and you want March to matter.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released June 16, 2026.