Karen Weekly explains Tennessee's plan to sweep Alabama in Tuscaloosa

Tennessee softball is trying to do what has long seemed impossible and sweep Alabama in Tuscaloosa this weekend. The Volunteers took the first two games and were locked in stalemate midway through Sunday’s final game.

During the battle, Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly hooped on with the ESPN broadcast to discuss a terrific weekend so far for her club. First, she addressed her one-two pitching duo of Karlyn Pickens and Payton Gottshall, the Vols’ primary arms who each have an ERA near 1.0.

“Yeah, you know, today’s a day where they might see both of them,” commented Weekly. “And I kind of like Karlyn coming in after Payton and Payton did a great job the other night. Again, I can’t go wrong, they’re both competitors, super good.”

Pitching has been excellent for Tennessee all season, but in this third game, the Vols really need to get the bats going. Against superb Alabama pitching, she wants to see more aggressive at-bats.

“It’s as simple as could be today: swing the bat. Like, I just don’t feel like when they’re hunting, I think we’re thinking about ‘oh, what’s she going to do different tdoay.’ It’s like, you know, there’s two pitches, a strike and a ball. I mean, just swing the bat.”

Weekly wants her girls to step into the plate and swing for the fences.

“You got to have an ‘on the hunt’ mindset from pitch one. And I think we’ve taken too many defensive swings when we have swung, and weak ground balls, little flares to the right side. We’re better hitters than that. We just got to free up and get after it.”

Alabama’s Kayla Braud explains decision to coach

Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy had an open assistant job on his staff last fall and decided to fill it with a familiar face in former Crimson Tide star Kayla Braud.

During this weekend’s home series against Tennessee, Braud got to relive her days behind the microphone at ESPN and was mic’d up for a portion of the game while serving as a base coach when her team was batting.

Braud’s old colleagues asked her about that transition from the booth to coaching one of America’s premier programs.

“Hey, you know, it’s one of those things, like, when you’re a coach, the highs are high and the lows are lower,” shared Braud. “But man, when you’re seeing a kid shine, seeing us come from behind and get a win, there’s just no feeling like that. I miss being in the booth, I’m not going to lie to you. But celebrating young women and growing this game, I love it.”