On Saturday, Tennessee softball pushed past Virginia with a 7-5 win to move on to the Knoxville Regional finals. After the game, Lady Vols head coach Karen Weekly met with the media to field questions on what transpired. She was asked about Karlyn Pickens’ pitching, responding to UVA’s scoring and more.
Here’s what she said.
More From RTI: Tennessee Softball Takes Down Virginia in Knoxville Regional, Advances to Finals
Opening statement
“Just a really great game. The kind of game you expect in postseason here at regionals. In our team, we’ve talked this week about nothing’s going to be easy. Every game is going to be a dogfight. Everybody’s here because they’re good, everybody’s here because they don’t quit, no matter what. And I’m really proud of our team for just the fight and answering back. Honestly, every time Virginia did something, we answered right back, and that’s a really, really good team across the field. They didn’t show any after effects of playing really late last night and being in a back-and-forth emotional extra inning game with Indiana, and I know whoever comes out of this today is going to be a formidable opponent tomorrow.”
On scoring five in the first inning
“It was definitely a breath of fresh air and I think a lot of that was key with our leadoff hitter getting on to start a game, that’s something that we haven’t done in a while. And when you can get your lead off hitter on in any inning, good things tend to happen when you got somebody on first with no outs. And Sophia (Knight) did her job putting pressure on the defense, created an error, and then everybody after that got a pitch they liked and took a good hack at it, and put something in play hard, or like in the case of (Taelyn) Holley, what a great at-bat, being really disciplined with the bases loaded, not getting too big, and getting an RBI on a walk. So we did it in a lot of different ways, but I just love the way (Knight) ignited us, and then we passed the bat all the way through the lineup.”
On starting Makenzie Butt the past two games
“Everybody’s probably saying you were an idiot for not playing her this last month, and I’m kind of thinking that myself. We knew, like, we’ve known all year. I mean, and (Butt) comes off the bench and gives us these really, really good pinch-hit at-bats, and has just kept learning, kept doing her job, kept working. You just always know, like, (Butt) is going to be there for you. And it just got to a point where I just felt like we need that extra oomph of that at-bat in there, and then kind of thinking it through, and Ella (Morrison) at third and Emma (Clarke) at second. I didn’t feel like we were weakening our defense. In fact, in some ways, I think it might be stronger, and I think time will tell with that, but I thought today we looked like the defense that we had seen all week, and a lot of players put in a lot of extra time this past week defensively working in those positions, and I think you saw that today.”
On the play of Emma Clarke, her home run
“She’s a beast, and it’s just bring the beast every day, like it’s in there, let it out, let it play. Best swing she took all day was the one that hit me in the shin. I loved it, because that meant she was getting after it, and I jokingly told her, when she got to third, she said, ‘I’m sorry’, and I said, ‘Well, nobody’s pulled the ball down here that hard in a while.’ But it’s my fault, I should have been on guard for it. And if I’m jumping, avoiding balls, I’m happy, because that means that we’re getting the barrel out, we’re getting after it.”
On how her leg is feeling
“It’s fine, it’s a little knot on it, but it’s fine. I’ll take that all day, every day. I’ll take as many bruises and bumps as I need to take to get those kind of swings.”
On her team responding to UVA’s scoring innings
“I think they have a lot of evidence of how good they are. You look at the whole season and the body of work through the whole season, and I want them to focus on the evidence that that shows you you deserve to have confidence, you deserve to expect greatness, you deserve to step in the box and think you’re going to do something special every single pitch. And I love the way, again, just the response, and I think sports, all sports, but softball, is a game of momentum, and if the other team gets some momentum, you got to grab it right back. And that’s what we did in both those moments.”
On using both Sage Mardjetko and Karlyn Pickens in the circle
“We had a plan before the game, and we told them that we will split this game. We didn’t know if it was going to be 4-3, 5-2. We just decided at the end of four to go ahead and hand the ball to Karlyn, but yes, we wanted both of them to get out there at some point today.”
On Karlyn Pickens coming out of the bullpen effectively
“I think Karlyn is ultimately the ultimate unselfish teammate, and no matter what Karlyn has done in her career, she’s not going to get caught up in I deserve this or I should have a start. And also, we really tried to educate them that it’s not about starting, we don’t really even call it start and relief, it’s more about who’s going to go first and go through the lineup however many times we think we want them to, and then who’s going to come in and give them a different look. And it could be the opposite. We could go Karlyn early, Sage late. So I think our pitchers have really embraced the game plans. We were very transparent about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and I know they just really trust Megan as their pitching coach, and trust me in the decisions I make, and if they weren’t all in, they wouldn’t work.”
On telling the team they deserve to have a shot to make great plays
“Well, I think you say a lot of things through the season, and sometimes I think they listen all the time, sometimes they do them, sometimes they don’t, but you just got to keep saying them, because ultimately they know and I know from doing this and seeing teams succeed and seeing teams fail, what’s going to work and what isn’t. And if you’re out there with a grateful heart and playing with joy, and I mean, how can you not be excited and happy to play in that venue with that place packed and those fans who support us day in and day out, win or lose? I mean, how lucky are we to be at the University of Tennessee? It just makes me so proud when I hear another coach in these press conferences just talk so glowingly about how we run an event like this and what great hosts we are. We talk about those things in our program. It’s way more than softball. But I think when you kind of take care of who you are and your character, it’s going to reflect itself on the field.”
On what she wants to take into tomorrow offensively
“Again, it’s just more evidence of how good we are, and when we show up. Talking to just Emma (Clarke), for example, ready to attack when I go, I’m going after it and letting loose. When we do that, good things are going to happen, and hey, you know what, I’d rather go down swinging like that than be have regrets, I guess that I really didn’t play on my toes. So I think the more they can experience that, and they know the actions that lead to the kind of game we had today, and the results we had, the better for us. So I want them to come out tomorrow throwing punches.”
