The Lady Vols defeated the defending national champions to start play Thursday at the Women’s College World Series with Sage Mardjetko earning her 15th win of the season and Karlyn Pickens adding her seventh save of 2026.

“We have this deep pitching staff,” coach Karen Weekly said after Tennessee took its first game with a 6-3 win over Texas in Oklahoma City. “You want to leverage that to the best of your ability. I think it’s hard for any pitcher in today’s game to go seven innings, getting back to the top of the order for the fourth time. Anytime you do that, no matter who you are, the advantage starts to shift to the hitters.

“We planned on splitting the game. It was just a matter of finding the moment we thought was the best one. It is out of respect for our opponent. It has nothing to do with Sage. Sage was dealing. It’s out of respect for our opponent to try to keep them off balance, knowing what a great offense they have.”

Tennessee has the best trio of pitchers in the country in Mardjetko, Pickens and Erin Nuwer and leads the country with the lowest earned run average (ERA) of 1.35. Nuwer is second in the country at 0.99 and Mardjetko is third at 1.12. Pickens, who dealt with an arm injury this season, is 10th at 1.53, and that didn’t stop the Carolina Bandits from picking the generational talent first in the AUSL professional draft.

The catcher who handles this stellar trio of arms is Elsa Morrison, a freshman who played at Farragut High School. As if that weren’t impressive enough, Morrison played in her first-ever Women’s College World Series (WCWS) and sent the first pitch she saw over the center field wall to give Tennessee a 3-0 lead that it never relinquished.

“It means the world getting to have an at-bat with the girls that I love and go to war with every single day,” Morrison said. “Everybody was talking about nerves, breathing, whatnot. I had complete peace in the box knowing that the girls in the dugout would have my back no matter the outcome.”

Morrison was the No. 1 player in Tennessee in high school, No. 2-ranked catcher in the country and No. 11 player overall. The credentials clearly were there, but the way Morrison has held down the catching duties with two First-Team All-Americans in Pickens and Mardjetko has been remarkable for a freshman. Nuwer could have been on those lists, too, and was inexplicably left off the All-SEC teams as voted by the conference’s head coaches, which speaks to Tennessee’s depth.

“It’s really her maturity,” Weekly said. “The season hasn’t been easy for her. It’s not like she’s batted .400 all year. You can tell everything about somebody when they’re struggling. When you watch her continue to work, there’s no drama with her. She’s just really analytical about things. She’s an engineering major. She just kept going to work.”

Tennessee sent Texas, the defending national champion to the losers’ bracket, where the Longhorns will play Mississippi State on Friday evening. Mississippi State took out Oklahoma, which was seeking its 10th consecutive appearance in the Women’s College World Series, in the Norman Super Regional last weekend in an epic upset that deprived the Sooners of a short trip to Oklahoma City at a venue that had become a second home field.

Mississippi State made its WCWS debut and lost 8-0 in five innings to Texas Tech, which lost to Texas in the championship series in 2025.

Tennessee, 48-10, and Texas Tech, 58-7, will play this Saturday, May 30, at 3 p.m. Eastern on ABC. The full bracket for the double elimination WCWS in Oklahoma City with game times and television is available HERE.

Weekly has bestowed considerable praise on her young team this season – if Pickens isn’t in the circle, the Lady Vols don’t start a single senior – while continuing to push them to get better.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a team where everybody is such a great teammate and really embraces the role they’re called upon to play,” Weekly said.

Mardjetko and her pitching mates have embraced the platoon system among the three pitchers and while Pickens may be the anchor, Nuwer and Mardjetko have been stalwarts for Tennessee.

“We’re focused on us, sticking to who we are, our core values and just going out there and playing Tennessee softball no matter who is across the field,” Mardjetko said. “That’s what we planned on doing all season, then the rest of the World Series.”

Tennessee’s post-game presser can be watched HERE; Texas’ session is HERE.

Elsa Morrison sends a pitch out of Devon Park at the Women’s College World Series. (NCAA photo)

It falls on Morrison, who has started 55 of Tennessee’s 58 games, to receive the pitches, visit the circle when needed for a chat with the pitcher and follow the game plan.

“Watching her mature from the beginning of fall to now has been really, really cool,” Weekly said after Thursday’s win. “She used to take a lot of pitches early (at bat) and get behind. She responded to the challenge. If they’re going to throw you something good early, you need to get on it, and you’re going to get results. Today that’s what she did. She got a pitch right away. She drove it for us.

“She doesn’t play like a freshman. She has a full season under her belt. Her maturity has always been ahead of her age group.”

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.