The Texas Longhorns are set to kick off their defense of the Women’s College World Series Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not about defending,” head coach Mike White said during the WCWS media days. “It’s about attacking. It’s about playing better softball overall and improving our standard of play. That’s really what we’re focusing on.”
The Horns will need to really focus an improve their standard of play if they want to avoid falling into the loser’s bracket. The Horns have to go up against one of the most decorated pitchers of all time in game one.
Tennessee pitcher Karlyn Pickens has been an All-American every season of her career. She’s got a 15-7 record this season, including 10 complete games. She has pitched 132 innings racking up 180 strikeouts.
It’s easy to ring up some eye popping K’s when you boast the fastest fastball ever recorded at 79.4 mph.
It also helps that Pickens has some of the most dialed in focus in the game.
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When Pickens isn’t on her game, pitchers Sage Mardjetko and Erin Nuwer usually are. Mardjetko rung up 165 strikeouts this season in only 119.0 innings leading to a career-best 1.12 ERA. Nuwer has gone even lower with a 0.99 ERA, limiting opponents to a .137 batting average.
“They definitely have three pitchers that have shown they can beat anybody at any time,” White said about the Tennessee trio.
It’s a nasty trio of pitchers that can’t be matched by any other team in the field.
“It’s a blessing to have three young women like this,” Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly said at the media days.
The pitching advantage for Tennessee has to be especially worrisome for Texas fans when you factor in that Texas bats have not always been reliable. No team in the WCWS has more strikeouts than the Longhorns.
So you’ve got a team in Tennessee whose pitchers are elite and ringing up strikeouts facing a Texas team that is prone to striking out anyway.
Might as well just chalk up the loss right now. Right?
Not so fast.
The Volunteers know a thing or two about bats going quiet. Tennessee ranked 104th in the nation in runs per game. They also have just one starter with a batting average better than .325, junior outfielder Sophia Knight (.414).
But the Vols have done enough on offense to make it back to Oklahoma City for the third year in a row.
“They just know they’ve got to score some runs and squeak them out and they’ll find ways to win,” said White.
Texas has a star pitcher of their own in junior Teagan Kavan.
White says Kavan is able to pitch her best in the biggest moments because she doesn’t make it about herself.
“She relishes the chance of getting back out there and taking her teammates with her,” White said of his pitcher. “I think she plays for her teammates more than anything else.”
In Tennessee’s 10 losses this season, they’ve scored three or fewer runs in all 10. In fact, the Vols haven’t scored more than 10 runs since April 13th and they’ve only eclipsed five runs once over that same timespan.
Still, the Vols say they’re hitting their stride at just the right time.
“We’ve been on a hot streak recently,” Pickens said Wednesday. “Our offense has been really coming together, the pitching staff is strong, so we’re ready to just come out and compete.”
If Kavan is on, then Texas may not need to light the world on fire at the plate in order to take care of business.
“Their offense is very dynamic,” said Weekly. “They’ve got the righty power, they’ve got the lefties who can spray the ball all over the field. They hit with power and they run really, really well. They have a little bit of everything and you wouldn’t expect anything less here at the World Series.
“So they’re going to be a tough opponent to beat, but I think our team will be ready for the challenge.”
Of course the Horns have one other advantage. They KNOW how to win. Texas is, after all, the defending national champion.
Now it’s time to see if they can repeat … but to do so they’ll need to get past that other UT first.
