Tennessee softball pitcher Karlyn Pickens is cementing herself as one of the best players in the sport's history.

The junior has been named SEC Pitcher of the Year for her outstanding season with the Lady Vols.

This is back-to-back years she has won the award.

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This is the first time the award has had back-to-back winners since the 2017-18 seasons. Those years, it went to Florida pitcher Kelly Barnhill.

Kelsi Dunne won the award in 2010-11 with Alabama, Stacey Nelson in 2008-09 with Florida and Lady Vols' legend Monica Abbott did so in 2004-05.

Other players to win the award twice but not in consecutive years are Jackie Traina with the Crimson Tide and Michelle Green with Georgia.

Abbott is the only player to have won the award three times in her career. With Tennessee, she won as a freshman and sophomore in 2004 and 2005 and as a senior in 2007.

Along with the award, Pickens was named a First-Team All-SEC member. Her teammate, Taylor Pannell, was also named to the First-Team All-SEC list.

Pickens finished the season with a 20-7 record and 0.96 ERA. This ERA mark was the best in the SEC and second best in the country behind Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady at 0.89.

Pickens threw 18 complete games with six shutouts while striking out 221 batters in 167.1 innings pitched. Opposing batters only hit .164 against her.

In conference play, Pickens remained effective against the best league in the country. She finished 11-4 with a 1.13 ERA. She threw 10 complete games and three shutouts over 93 innings.

Tennessee softball's latest appearance was a loss to 5-seed Arkansas in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. The 4-seed Lady Vols fell 6-1 with Pickens in the circle. However, despite pitching the entire game, all six of the runs allowed were unearned due to errors in the field.

Now, the Lady Vols will await their selection in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show is on Sunday with Tennessee projected to be on the borderline of a top-eight seed which would set them up to host a super regional.

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