Balanced Attack Leads #1 Lady Vols To Victory In Green And Gold Classic

By Sawyer Hunley

Dominate.

A word used often by Karen Weekly when addressing Tennessee softball, and a word she hoped her team would live by for an entire year. 

It’s not hard to see how much the Lady Vols have dominated the diamond to start the season. 

The No. 1 Lady Vols competed in the Green and Gold Classic this weekend, hosted by UAB in Birmingham, Alabama. Tennessee’s domination was headlined once again by strong pitching and batting for multiple Volunteers.

The Lady Vols outscored their opponents by a combined score of 37-1 over the weekend, a staggering total and fitting for a team that earned a unanimous No. 1 ranking after multiple top-10 wins to begin the season. 

Although the domination continued, the first two games in the tournament were a little sluggish from the offense.

The Lady Vols struggled to plate runs and had to turn to their pitching staff to back them up.

Junior Sage Mardjetko and senior Karlyn Pickens did just that.

Mardjetko threw a complete game shutout against Missouri State, only allowing four hits and walking only three batters in the 5-0 win on Friday night.

Pickens was also stellar in the circle, pitching a complete game while only allowing one run on two hits and walking only one batter. She also recorded 11 strikeouts in the 6-1 win over UAB.

While the pitching staff was stupendous, Weekly was not overall impressed with the team’s performance on the first night of the tournament.

“It wasn’t a night that I was really pleased with how we played,” Weekly said.

The Lady Vols reset and came to the ballpark with a different mindset on Saturday night when they took on Mercer.

The approach at the plate was much better than it was on Friday night as the team scored 17 runs on 14 hits and also drew three walks. 

Weekly was much more pleased with her team’s performance on the second day of the Green and Gold Classic.

“I really liked the way we responded from last night,” said Weekly.

That performance carried over into Sunday afternoon’s game as the Lady Vols took down Southern Illinois by a score of 9-0.

The offense came to play again, scoring those nine runs off of nine hits, along with four different players recording multiple RBI’s.

Up Next: The Lady Vols prepare to defend home turf and open their 2026 home season in Knoxville Sherri Parker Lee Stadium next weekend as they play host to the Tennessee Invitational beginning next Friday. 

The Lady Vols first game in the tournament will be against Appalachian State on Friday afternoon at 3 PM ET.