Oklahoma has won the last four national softball championships and for six innings, the Lady Vols held the lead Thursday against the Sooners, who had nearly all of the 11,085 in attendance at Devon Park in Oklahoma City on their side.

But with two outs in the seventh and two runners on base because of a leadoff walk and a single that scooted into the grass, Oklahoma’s Ella Parker sent a pitch by Karlyn Pickens into the center field stands for a three-run homer and a 4-3 win at the Women’s College World Series (WCWS).

Walk-off wins can deflate the loser and send so much momentum to the winner.

Tennessee coach Karen Weekly called it a “gut punch, but she also noted that “we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s what we just talked about in the locker room.”

No. 7 Tennessee, 45-16, has to bounce back quickly and will face another SEC foe in No. 3 seed Florida, 48-16, today, May 30, at 7 p.m. The Gators also dropped their opener to No. 6 seed Texas to land in the loser’s bracket. The game will be broadcast on ESPN with the loser going home and the winner surviving to play Sunday, June 1, against a to-be-determined team from the other side of the bracket, which can be checked HERE.

The Lady Vols have experience this season in battling back after a tough start to a series. That is, however, harder to do in post-season, and the Tennessee team that traveled to Oklahoma has a lot of youngsters on the field.

“There is one person in our starting lineup that’s a senior with four years starting in the SEC,” Weekly said. “That’s it. We have a lot of sophomores who didn’t play a lot last year. So, I’m really proud how they showed up here.

“They weren’t fazed. The environment didn’t faze them.”

One of those youngsters is redshirt freshman Ella Dodge. Her two home runs in the Super Regional helped send Tennessee to the WCWS. In her first game on the sport’s biggest stage, Dodge had stellar at-bats, worked deep counts, walked twice and scored a run while motoring from first to home on a ball sent to left-center after one of those walks.

Monica Abbott, a legendary former Lady Vol pitcher noticed, too.

“We call her “Pigpen” because she’s the dirtiest one at practice,” Weekly said. “Ella is going to fight and scratch and claw to do everything she can on the softball field. The girl absolutely just loves playing.”

Dodge  moved up in the order at the Super Regional and is a quick study at bat during a game.

“What I was really proud of was her first at-bat wasn’t real good,” Weekly said. “She got herself in a 3-1 count and chased something high, and we would have drawn a walk there and kept the inning going a little bit more.

“But she bounced back right away, and her next two at-bats were fantastic. When you can see a freshman do that, that’s pretty cool.”

Pickens struck out eight Oklahoma batters and needed just one more out for a sensational win. But the Sooners walked it off – and Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso noticed Sooners fans leaving early in the seventh inning when it appeared Tennessee would win in a game in which Oklahoma had rallied in other innings and come up short. They missed a show.

“That’s what I love about this team is they’ll sell out for you,” Gasso said. “They don’t care what the score is, they’ll just keep fighting until they get there. And they’ve proven that. It surprised me. But sometimes it just makes you smile. Like, there’s no way you just did that.”

Tennessee’s full press conference can be watched HERE. Oklahoma’s full press conference can be watched HERE.

Oklahoma will play Texas on Saturday in a matchup of longtime foes in the Big 12 before the Sooners and Longhorns joined the SEC starting in the 2025 softball season.

Tennessee will have to grind through the loser’s bracket and win today and June 1 to reach Monday’s game on June 2, where either a rested Texas or Oklahoma team will be waiting.

“We’ve been in this position before, just losing a game and having to bounce back,” said Laura Mealer, who went 2-3 against Oklahoma. “I think we had a great talk in the locker room of yeah, it stings right now, and we can let it sting for a minute, but flush it right away because you don’t have time to dwell on it.”

A determined Karlyn Pickens delivers a pitch in the Women’s College World Series. (Tennessee Athletics)

Pickens could get the ball again for the second game, or Sage Mardjetko could take the circle. Both will be ready in an elimination game. The winner also will have an off day this Saturday before the next game.

“What I expect going into (the game) from Karlyn and this entire team, we’ve been here,” Weekly said. “We were here last Friday. We lost the first game against Nebraska. We go into Saturday morning, win-or-go-home. Sunday, win-or-go-home.

“That’s the situation we’re in right now. We’re playing Florida, and one team is going home. And it’s really going to come down to which team can flush (the loss) the quickest and get their mind right.”

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 in 2026.