Karen Weekly believes Tennessee softball is prepared for SEC play
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Tennessee softball enters SEC play riding its best start to a season since 2006 and 2007.
The similarities between those teams and this one? Pitching.
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"When you look back then, you had Monica Abbott and our current pitching coach, Megan Rhodes Smith, leading the way," coach Karen Weekly said March 3. "Everything starts in the circle. If you’ve got depth in the circle, you have a chance to do some good things, and then you build a good defense around that, and some pretty explosive offensive players."
The No. 1 Lady Vols (20-0) have all three of those things so far, but that'll be tested every SEC series. Tennessee begins conference play against No. 17 LSU (17-4) with a three-game series at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium that begins March 6 (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network+).
Tennessee senior ace Karlyn Pickens suffered an arm strain against Belmont on March 3, and it appears she avoided the worst case scenario and according to a school release on March 4 is "day-to-day."
Weekly said they're as prepared for SEC play as they can be after a tough nonconference schedule. The Lady Vols beat six ranked opponents in nonconference play, and faced some of the top pitchers in the country in Nebraska's Jordy Frahm and Belmont's Maya Johnson.
Weekly was also pleased that they had a solid field of teams than they typically can get for their home invitational. In three of the Tennessee Invitational games, the opponent scored first and forced the Lady Vols to come back and win. Pickens, Erin Nuwer and Sage Mardjetko all gave up a home run early in one of their starts.
Weekly was pleased that all three of the pitchers didn't let it faze them. That has been the biggest area of growth for Mardjetko, Weekly said, which is why she has been able to "command the zone" much better this season.
Mardjetko and Nuwer both stepped when Pickens had to leave the Belmont game in the second inning and securing a 1-0 win.
"We've seen it all year, the blessing of having a deep pitching staff, that we're able to go to Erin as quickly as we did and know that she's going to keep 'em down," Weekly said. "All three of them act like an ace, they do, and they have the confident and know that that's who they are."
It would be a blow to be without Pickens, the reigning back-to-back SEC Pitcher of the Year, to open SEC play. But Weekly is confident in the depth behind her with Mardjetko, Nuwer and freshman Peyton Hardenburger, who hasn't gotten the opportunities yet playing behind the trio.
"I'm just this kind of person who's like, whatever you tell me the situation is, we're going to go and we're going to go win," Weekly said. "I'm not saying anything is going to be easy, but we've got really good pitching ... And I also just believe in our team. We're doing well, playing well, defensively and offensively, so I'll take these guys into battle all day, every day. And whoever is available, we're going to go fight."
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee softball starts SEC play with LSU, a test for pitching staff