The softball team will play back-to-back SEC series at home starting with Ole Miss for alumni weekend to welcome back nearly three dozen former players.

The first of a three-game series will be today, March 27, at 6 p.m. at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium with a broadcast on the SEC Network. Saturday’s game will start at 2 p.m. with Sunday’s game at 1:30 p.m. Both of those matchups will be livestreamed on SECN+.

No. 4 Tennessee (29-3, 6-3) dropped its first series of the season at Florida last weekend and is coming off an 8-0 midweek win over Tennessee Tech. Ole Miss (21-14, 0-9) has been swept by Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma and nearly beat the Sooners last Sunday after taking a lead in the sixth inning.

“Connecting with your alums is huge,” coach Karen Weekly said. “Our alumni take so much pride in this program because they were part of building the tradition and the legacy that Tennessee softball is.”

Laura Dukes, the director of operations for softball, added a new feature by starting a mentoring program between former and current Tennessee players.

“This year, we’ve done some pretty cool things, and I can’t take credit for it,” Weekly said. “Every one of our current players has an alumni mentor that they received a letter from before we started our first game, and then they’ve had phone connections, text communication, just developing that relationship, somebody who’s been through the program now out in the world doing other really cool things.”

The program helps current players understand the transition from college to what lies ahead, whether that’s professional opportunities in softball or other career fields.

The celebration will include the first team to win an SEC tournament title in 2006 to mark the 20th anniversary, the upcoming induction of the now-retired Ralph Weekly into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame and the 25th year since the Weeklys arrived at Tennessee as co-head coaches.

“This weekend is going to be a lot of fun,” Weekly said. “The thing that’s so special for me is just connecting with what they’re doing now, getting to know their families. Personally, I love when they bring all their kids back, and you see a bunch of kids running around on the field. That’s the part that warms my heart the most.”

After Tennessee struggled to be more aggressive with early strikes against Florida, Weekly shifted the lineup by moving Sophia Knight to the top of the order. The leadoff hitter is the one person a coach wants to make the pitcher work – as opposed to swinging at the first strike – so the other batters can see multiple pitches.

“You let us see what this pitcher has,” Weekly said. “But as you get into day two and three of a series, we want to get in there and get after it. If a pitcher is going to show you something different, you’re going to see it early. Sophia does a really good job of hitting in all counts. It’s what makes her so good.

“We have a lot of players who they get deeper into counts, two-strike counts, those averages go down. We’re doing a lot of our damage early in counts, and we need to be ready to attack when we see those strikes. So, after her, you definitely want to see that aggressiveness pick up.”

Tennessee will host South Carolina for a three-game series April 2-4 – it starts on a Thursday – and then play ETSU in Knoxville on April 7 and Kennesaw State on April 8 before traveling to Lexington for a three-game series at Kentucky on April 11-13.

“We love playing at home with our fans supporting us, and it’s just a great environment, with all the support we get from not just people in Knoxville, but all around so it’s definitely going to make the difference this weekend,” Tennessee pitcher Sage Mardjetko said.

Mardjetko, who had off-season shoulder surgery, has been stellar in the circle with a 7-0 record, 75 strikeouts and an ERA of 0.88. Mardjetko played one season at South Carolina and transferred to Tennessee in 2025. Her mentor is former Lady Vols pitcher Ashley Rogers, and the junior pitcher appreciates Rogers and the overall program.

“Like Karen said, just getting to know their kids and seeing how life does go on after softball, when right now softball is your whole life, is definitely super cool to see,” Mardjetko said. “Ashley Rogers has helped me through injuries. She was pre-med, I’m pre-dental, so a lot of similarities between the two of us that she has just helped me go through, have a good perspective and good advice.”

PAT SUMMITT

For anyone who missed “Celebrating Pat Summitt: A Live Reunion Special,” last December at the Tennessee Theatre, it will be shown this Sunday, March 29, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

An evening of stories that induced both tears and laughter, the event was moderated by ESPN’s Holly Rowe and featured former Lady Vols Candace Parker, Nikki (Caldwell) Fargas and Andraya Carter, and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley.

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.