Following Tennessee softball's regional-clinching win over Virginia, Lady Vols head coach Karen Weekly met with her team in the outfield.
One of the first things she noted when addressing her now super regional bound squad was the dominant pitching from over the weekend.
The pitching was so elite, it didn't allow a single run over the three games Tennessee won to advance to the super regionals. With a hot offense, the combined score of the games was 21-0 after 19 innings of pitching in the favor of the Lady Vols.
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"That was one of the first things that I pointed out to them in the huddle up in the outfield after the game to our pitchers," said Weekly. "That's huge. I doubt that's being done at any other regional in the country."
While Weekly wasn't sure at the time she made her statement, it was true. No other team in the country was able to pull off what Tennessee did. It was the only squad to not allow a single run in the regionals.
This ultimately helps the offense, as well. With less pressure to produce runs, the bats are freer and it showed.
"I think it takes just a big weight off of these guys' shoulders as hitters knowing that our pitchers are going to go out there and hold people," said Weekly. "And they both have the mindset that my job is to keep a 0 on the board until our offense can figure things out and get runs up for us. I would imagine they're a whole lot of fun to play behind. I know they're a lot of fun to coach because they're so competitive."
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One of those effieicent batters is Zaida Puni. While she often just takes at-bats and isn't in the field this season, she was the third baseman a year ago when Karlyn Pickens was a freshman.
Now, a year later, Pickens is a sophomore and is coming off 14 innings of shutout pitching in the NCAA Tournament's opening weekend.
Puni can see the difference in her demeanor from a year ago.
"Just being on the field, playing third base with her last year, she was obviously different," said Puni. "She was more tense but now this year, she's just changed. She's accepted her role and she's grown as a woman, and as a player, too. So, you can see that on the field. She's super different. She's confident in herself, she lets things go. If things aren't going her way, she knows we have her back."
Alongside Pickens, Payton Gottshall has also been dominant. She only had to pitch five innings due to a run-rule win, but she looked just as untouchable as her counterpart in Pickens.
The pair are considered two of the best pitchers in the country and could be the key to Tennessee reaching consecutive Women's College World Series and possibly even winning the National Championship as the No. 3 overall seed.
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