Karlyn Pickens wins weekly SEC, national award
Tennessee junior softball player Karlyn Pickens earned both a conference and national weekly honor.
Pickens was named SEC Pitcher of the Week and the National Fast Pitch Coaches Association Pitcher of the Week following three conference victories over No. 14 Arkansas and No. 2 Oklahoma. She totaled 18 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched against the Razorbacks and Sooners. Pickens' selection as NFCA Pitcher of the Week marks the first time since 2017 for a Lady Vols pitcher to win a national award.
Pickens, who posted a 1.65 ERA in three wins, made one start and two relief appearances. In a relief appearance on March 24 against the Razorbacks, she pitched 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, while not allowing a hit.
She made history by recording the fastest pitch in history (78.2 miles per hour), eclipsing former Lady Vol Monica Abbott's previous National Pro Fastpitch record of 77 miles per hour, which was set in 2012 with the Chicago Bandits.
In the series opener against the Sooners, Pickens earned a relief victory, pitching 5.2 innings in the eight-inning game. She allowed one earned run and six hits, while recording six strikeouts.
In Sunday's series finale against the Sooners, Pickens pitched a complete game, allowing three earned runs, four hits and three walks. She recorded six strikeouts.
Her two wins at Oklahoma helped Tennessee win the series in Norman, making the Lady Vols the third team since 2006 to win a series there.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How Thunder-Pacers reached NBA Finals Game 7: The odyssey of two small-market, rebuild darlings
Usually a dagger is drawn in the waning minutes or seconds, but Ben Sheppard pulled his at the third-quarter buzzer. The 28-foot 3-pointer gave the Indiana Pacers a deafening, 30-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a euphoric Gainbridge Fieldhouse Thursday night. Advertisement The shot also all but guaranteed the 20th Game 7 in NBA Finals history. Sheppard's moment is just one of many in a now-seven-game championship series that's been a few years in the making. So let's take a look at how the unlikely summer showdown between the Thunder and Pacers came to be: two small-market, rebuild darlings duking it out for first-time NBA supremacy. Rebuilds don't have to take forever... The Thunder struck in 2012 but couldn't capture lightning in a bottle. With three future league MVPs — a 23-year-old Kevin Durant, a 23-year-old Russell Westbrook and a 22-year-old James Harden — Oklahoma City swept the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks, took down Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers in five games and then bested Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili, Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs in six games for the Western Conference crown during a lockout-shortened season. Advertisement But a controversial no-call in Game 2 of the NBA Finals marked the beginning of the end for that year's Thunder. A would-have, could-have free-throw trip for Durant never happened, the Miami Heat tied the series 1-1, and LeBron James' "Big 3" went on to claim the Larry O'Brien Trophy in five games. Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets the following preseason, and the Thunder only teased another Finals appearance the next 12 years. This year's iteration of the Thunder — now the youngest Finals team since 1977 — didn't take general manager Sam Presti all that long to build. He hit the reset button after the 2020 bubble, and his team was taking the league by storm again four seasons later. Two of the Thunder's best players right now are in their third NBA seasons: After back-to-back 20-something-win, future-oriented campaigns, Presti grabbed center Chet Holmgren with the No. 2 overall pick and scooped up wing Jalen Williams with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 draft. Advertisement The Williams pick came from Oklahoma City's summer-altering 2019 trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. At the time, the Thunder gave up a 29-year-old Paul George and got a fledgling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, veteran wing Danilo Gallinari and seven future draft picks and/or swaps. Gilgeous-Alexander is now an MVP, and Williams is his All-Star sidekick. Meanwhile, the Clippers never won a title with their duo, George and Kawhi Leonard. The Thunder, who have been led by system-grown, G League-turned-NBA head coach Mark Daigneault since 2020, ended up missing the playoffs three times between Presti's franchise recalibration and the Thunder's run to the Western Conference semifinals last year, Holmgren's first season on the court in Oklahoma City. This season, the Thunder won a head-turning 68 games — the most in franchise history, including four more than the Seattle SuperSonics won in 1995-96 — recording the best 2024-25 record in the NBA. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have led the charge for the Thunder through these playoffs. (Photo by) (Joshua Gateley via Getty Images) The Pacers, on the other hand, finished 18 games back of the Thunder on the other side of the league standings, but in a consistently vulnerable Eastern Conference that hasn't had a repeat champion since James' Cavaliers made four straight NBA Finals from 2015-18. Advertisement Indiana rallied from a 10-15 start this season. From the New Year on, the Pacers posted a 34-14 record, finishing the 2024-25 regular-season campaign with a mark of 50-32. A second-half sprint secured Indiana the No. 4 seed in the East, opening the door to a magical playoff run. That door would have been locked, though, had Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard not committed to a rebuild of his own halfway through the 2021-22 season. In February 2022, the Pacers first dealt Caris LeVert to the Cavaliers for picks that became defensive pests Andrew Nembhard and Ben Sheppard. The next day, Indiana traded star big man Domantas Sabonis — as well as Jeremy Lamb and Justin Holiday, plus a second-round pick — to the Sacramento Kings for three players, most notably playmaking extraordinaire Tyrese Haliburton. That July, the Pacers dished Malcolm Brogdon for a handful of pieces, including Aaron Nesmith, who was hidden behind Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in Boston but has thrived as a do-it-all floor spacer and defender in Indiana. Advertisement A year later, the Pacers acquired versatile forward Obi Toppin from the New York Knicks. Toppin wasn't doing much in New York while he was stuck behind Julius Randle. In Indiana, his rim-running ability and 3-point shooting are on full display. As influential as Haliburton's been, Indiana wouldn't be where it is without its second-most significant in-season trade. That took place in January 2024, when the Pacers acquired multi-time All-Star and one-time NBA champion Pascal Siakam from a Toronto Raptors team eying a rebuild of its own. Some of Indiana's current players were already in place. Longtime center Myles Turner was drafted in 2015, and gritty guard T.J. McConnell was signed in free agency in 2019. But the Pacers' series of trades the last three years mostly did the trick. Indiana missed the playoffs the season it started its rebuild — head coach Rick Carlisle's first back at the helm — and the season after that. Since, the Pacers have reached the Eastern Conference finals twice and, now, the NBA Finals for just the second time in franchise history. Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton have proven to be Indiana's one-two punch this postseason. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Pacers, Thunder have entertained with winding playoff paths... The Pacers' ride to the NBA Finals started against the Milwaukee Bucks, whom Indiana defeated in five games. Advertisement Without a full-strength Damian Lillard to help throughout the series, Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks were overmatched by the run-and-gun Pacers. An 8-0 run in overtime sealed the deal for Indiana in Game 5, which saw the Pacers force two turnovers in the final 29 seconds and then Haliburton lay in the game-winner with 1.3 seconds remaining. While the Thunder coasted through the Western Conference this season, the Cavaliers did much of the same in the Eastern Conference. But Cleveland's 64 regular-season wins were tainted by its conference semifinals performance versus the Pacers. Indiana made quick work of the East's No. 1 seed, once again advancing in five games. The Cavaliers were shorthanded, missing starters Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, plus key reserve DeAndre Hunter, at various points of the series. The Pacers stole two games on the road, the second featuring another chapter of Haliburton's heroics: Indiana scored the game's final eight points in 47.9 seconds, capped by a game-winning 3-pointer from Haliburton with 1.1 ticks left. Haliburton, inexplicably, was voted the "most overrated" player in the league in an anonymous player poll earlier this season. The two-time All-Star has had the last laugh often this postseason, thanks to clutch shot after clutch shot. He delivered another in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks. Advertisement The Knicks led by 14 points with less than three minutes to go in regulation. Then Nesmith's flurry of 3s brought the Pacers back from the dead, setting the stage for Haliburton's game-tying 2-pointer that bounced up from the back of the rim and hung in the air for a couple of seconds before dropping in the net. Haliburton mimicked Pacers Hall of Famer Reggie Miller's famous choke signal, which Miller flashed to Spike Lee during a 1994 playoff comeback against the Knicks. Nembhard scored the go-ahead basket with 26 seconds left in overtime to give the Pacers a valuable 1-0 lead in the series. In a 2-0 hole, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks fought tooth and nail for wins in Games 3 and 5. But the Pacers closed the series in six games, using a monster third quarter to pull away in front of their fans in Indianapolis while booking their ticket to the Finals for the first time in 25 years. The Thunder's path was far more predictable. At its peak, however, it was just as entertaining. Advertisement Oklahoma City waltzed past the inferior Memphis Grizzlies in four games before nearly bowing out of the playoffs in the conference semifinals for the second year in a row. This time, the Thunder had to get by a Denver Nuggets team still equipped with its core from a 2023 championship run. Under the leadership of then-interim head coach David Adelman, the Nuggets took the Thunder to seven games. Denver pulled off a Game 1 stunner in Oklahoma City, complete with a game-winning 3-pointer from Aaron Gordon. The Thunder retaliated with a 149-point explosion in Game 2. Bouncing back from their 43-point loss, the Nuggets reclaimed the series lead in Game 3. Like the series opener, they trailed most of the contest but made their move at the right time, stringing together an 11-2 run in overtime. The Thunder responded by winning a 92-87 rock fight in Game 4 before seizing a pivotal Game 5 back at home. Jamal Murray battled through illness and piloted Denver to a must-have victory in Game 6. In Game 7, though, Oklahoma City rolled in a 32-point rout — they did so while Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 and three-time MVP Nikola Jokić was held to just 20 points on five field goals. Advertisement Returning to their dominant ways, the Thunder took down the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games during the Western Conference finals. Gilgeous-Alexander poured in at least 30 points in each of those wins, sporting 38 points in Game 2 and 40 points in Game 4. Showing its youth a bit, however, Oklahoma City laid an egg in Game 3, suffering a head-scratching 143-101 loss to the Timberwolves, who were making their second straight conference finals appearance. Best NBA Finals moments so far... Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110 Haliburton's cinematic saga continued in Game 1 of the Finals. His 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining wrenched the series opener from the Thunder's grasp. Advertisement The Pacers got away with 25 turnovers and were trailing by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter. A deficit like that hadn't stopped Indiana's comebacks from spawning before, and it didn't get in the way of a storybook finish on June 5, this time in Oklahoma City. That breathtaking triumph marked the largest fourth-quarter Finals comeback since Carlisle's Dallas Mavericks came back from 15 against the Heat in 2011. Game 2: Thunder 123, Pacers 107 The Thunder may be young, but they've already mastered the art of bouncing back from a loss. They've done that twice so far this series, starting with Game 2. Advertisement Sticky defender and timely 3-point shooter Alex Caruso supplied 20 points off the bench, and Gilgeous-Alexander sat on his throne atop the box score with 34 points of his own. A 19-2 run in the second quarter transformed a six-point Oklahoma City lead into an ultimately insurmountable 23-point advantage. Game 3: Pacers 116, Thunder 107 Indiana knows a thing or two about responding to a loss, too. The Pacers flexed their resilience in Game 3, despite being on the road. That toughness came in different forms, including in an unexpected 27 points off the bench from wing Bennedict Mathurin. He played a seismic part in the Pacers outscoring the Thunder 49-18 in bench points. Haliburton flirted with a triple-double, posting 22 points, 11 assists and 9 rebounds. Advertisement Oklahoma City got 20-plus points from Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren, but they didn't have enough in the tank to hold off Indiana in the fourth quarter. Game 4: Thunder 111, Pacers 104 It looked like the Pacers were going to take the often-telling 3-1 lead. The league's MVP had other ideas. Gilgeous-Alexander erupted in the fourth quarter, pocketing 15 of his 35 points in the final 4:38. In other words, he scored all but one of the Thunder's points during their 16-7, game-ending run. Just like that, Indiana's 10-point halftime lead — and seven-point cushion entering the final frame — vanished. Game 5: Thunder 120, Pacers 109 Gilgeous-Alexander was similarly great in Game 5. His partner in crime was even better. Advertisement Williams upped his scoring total in each of the Finals' first five games. His fifth performance twinkled, as he served up a 40-piece in a momentum-shifting victory. Indiana pushed and pushed, in part thanks to a persistent 18 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists from McConnell, yet never fully made up for its 10-point, first-quarter deficit. Shooting 3 for 5 from deep and diving into his bag for an array of creative shots, Williams even garnered comparisons to legendary Chicago Bulls sidekick Scottie Pippen in the wake of a 3-2 series lead. To make matters worse for the Pacers, Haliburton suffered a calf strain during the defeat. He tried to play through the pain, except he finished with only four points on 0-for-6 shooting from the field. Game 6: Pacers 108, Thunder 91 With their backs against the wall at home, the Pacers' season and NBA championship hopes were on the line in Game 6. Advertisement Haliburton was a game-time decision but played anyway and delivered 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals in the first half. His supporting cast came through as well — notably, McConnell had another memorable showing, clocking out with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals. Indiana staked itself to a 22-point lead by intermission. That lead grew to 30 in the third quarter, allowing Carlisle to rest his starters in the fourth. Daigneault did the same, as Game 7 loomed. Sheppard hit the buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the third quarter, but a no-look Haliburton pass on the break and subsequent Siakam poster dunk over Williams just before halftime was the highlight of the night. Now, it all comes down to Sunday's Game 7. Which team will etch its name in NBA lore? Tune in to ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
LSU football loses top quarterback target, four-star passer to SEC rival
LSU 2026 quarterback target Bowe Bentley committed to Oklahoma, per On3's Hayes Fawcett on Friday. The Tigers made a push for the four-star passer during the spring, landing in Bentley's top two alongside the Sooners. However, after taking official visits to both within the last month, he decided to head to Norman. Advertisement Ranked No. 7 at his position and No. 11 out of Texas by On3's Industry Rankings, Bentley had a host of SEC offers to choose from. There have been multiple reports that say the Celina, TX native traveled to campus Friday to tell head coach Brent Venables and the staff in person. LSU's 2026 class still ranks first in the conference and second nationally, but it remains in search of a quarterback. There are two top-10 uncommitted passers remaining, but the Tigers aren't considered finalists for either, nor anyone in the top 30. LSU will now move its focus to flip targets. Just because Bentley committed doesn't mean he'll stop hearing from schools. Expect LSU to stay in his ear and possibly host him for another trip, and possibly for a game in Death Valley. This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU football loses top quarterback recruiting target to SEC rival
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Steelers players reveal their NBA Finals predictions: Pacers vs. Thunder
As the NBA Finals rage on — the Pittsburgh Steelers have weighed in on the exciting matchup between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Ahead of Game 3 on June 11, the Steelers asked their players to decide which NBA team will walk away victorious and recorded their answers. Here is the final tally of votes: Indiana Pacers: 5 votes Cam Heyward, Beanie Bishop Jr., James Pierre, and two others picked the Pacers to win the best-of-seven series — which may have provided Indiana with just enough good luck to walk away victorious in Game 3 later that night. Oklahoma City Thunder: 11 votes There is definitely a lot of OKC love in the Steelers locker room — as Calvin Austin III, Darnell Washington, Alex Highsmith, Patrick Queen, Nick Herbig, Broderick Jones, Jaylen Warren, and four more voted for the Thunder to win the NBA Finals. Honorable mention: Minkah Fitzpatrick was the last Steeler to cast his vote, and he said he'd pick the New York Knicks to win it all if they were in the Finals. Advertisement For up-to-date Steelers coverage, follow us on X @TheSteelersWire and give our Facebook page a like. This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers predict NBA Finals outcome, Pacers vs. Thunder
