Big Orange Report May 8, 2025

 


The Road to Oklahoma City

The Southeastern Conference softball tournament is set to get underway this week in Athens, Georgia. The baseball event is on deck two weeks later and both squads of Diamond Vols are setting their sites on tournament titles.
The softball battle begins on Tuesday and the first 11 games will be televised on the SEC network. The semi-finals will move to ESPN2 on Friday with the title showdown scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN on Saturday afternoon at 4 CDT. No matter the eventual outcome, at least 14 league teams are expected to be included in the 64-team field that leads to a national champion for 2025.
Coach Karen Weakley and the SoftVols can win it all in both tournaments if a couple of things deliver positive results. Tennessee has, perhaps, the best pitcher in the nation when Karlyn Pickens takes the ball in the circle. The unknown here is whether or not Sage Mardjetko or the two freshmen can deliver solid performances when Pickens needs some rest. All three right handers have looked stingy at times but have also struggled in league games this spring.
The second pressing question concerns the offense, a lineup that has run hot and cold during the last month of the regular season schedule. The bats were good enough to make Tennessee the only team in the country that won two of three games at Oklahoma and Texas, the two teams that played for the NCAA title this time last year. The middle of the batting order, featuring Taylor Pannell, McKenna Gibson and senior catcher Sophia Nugent must deliver in the clutch for UT. Leadoff hitter Kensey Fiedler, a transfer from Washington, can ignite the offense and she has a very good on base percentage this season. The middle of the order cannot carry the offense alone and needs help from Gabby and Alannah Leach along with shortstop Laura Mealer. Any offensive production that the team gets at the bottom of the order from freshmen will be a huge bonus.
Team Leaders
Third baseman Taylor Pannell paces the offense for the team. She has a batting average of .414, an on base percentage of .516 and has smashed 15 homers while knocking in 60 runs. Catcher Sophia Nugent was hot in the last series, jacking three homers. She has 14 four baggers with 51 RBI this spring.
Freshman Saviya Morgan needs to get on base consistently. She is fast and a great bunter. Morgan has swiped 25 bases this year and has a batting average of .388.
Pickens, the junior right hander, has composed a record of 20-7 with a microscopic earned run average of 0.96. She has fanned 221 batters in 167 innings of work. Mardjetko has an 11-2 record with a 2.61 ERA and has struck out 109 batters in 83 innings in the circle.
The SoftVols earned a double bye in the tournament despite dropping the last regular season series to Texas A&M and ace left hander Emiley Kennedy. Tennessee won game two behind a strong pitching performance from Mardjetko with Pickens earning the save over the last 1.2 innings.
UT's first game is set for Thursday at approximately 1 p.m. They will face the winner of a contest between five seed Arkansas and the team that prevails in a first round contest between Kentucky and Georgia.
Oklahoma is the one seed in this bracket and the Sooners first game will be against the winner of Wednesday face off pitting LSU against Mississippi State. The semi-final in this bracket is slated to be broadcast at 3 p.m., Friday, on ESPN2. The top seeds in the lower half of the bracket are Texas and Texas A&M.
Vol Notes
The football staff landed a key transfer last week when Colorado defensive back Colton Hood announced he was moving to Rocky Top. Hood (6-0, 190, 4.45) has multiple years of eligibility remaining and he was ranked, by one service, as the top cornerback in the portal this cycle. He has been described as elite with his press coverage in man-to-man situations.  

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