The best regional moment of every Tennessee baseball run under Tony Vitello

2019: Vols get out of bases-loaded, ninth-inning jam with season on the line

2021: Drew Gilbert hits walk-off grand slam

2022: Tennessee rallies in the ninth to beat Georgia Tech

2023: Zane Denton homers in the ninth to take the lead

2024: Kaveres Tears gives Tennessee the lead in the regional finals

Tennessee softball is heading back to Oklahoma City after beating Nebraska in the NCAA super regional.

The No. 7 seed Lady Vols (45-15) are making their ninth appearance in the Women’s College World Series, and their second in the last three years. Tennessee and star pitcher Karlyn Pickens will face No. 2 seed Oklahoma (50-7) to open the WCWS on May 29 (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Tennessee’s last trip to Oklahoma City was in 2023 when it made a run to the semifinals before being eliminated.

Buy tickets for Tennessee softball vs. Oklahoma in WCWS

Here’s what you need to know about the matchup with the Sooners.

Tennessee, Karlyn Pickens beat Oklahoma in road series

Tennessee started the road series at Oklahoma with a 5-2 win in extra innings thanks to catcher Sophia Nugent, who started her career as a Sooner. Nugent hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning, giving the Lady Vols a 4-2 lead before Laura Mealer scored on a wild pitch.

Tennessee then lost 4-1 in Game 2, only logging four hits – and Taylor Pannell had three of them and scored the lone run with a solo home run. But the Lady Vols won the rubber match 5-3, scoring all five runs in the fourth inning. Mealer hit a two-RBI double before Ella Dodge blasted a three-run homer to win the game.

Karlyn Pickens had 12 strikeouts, 10 hits allowed, three walks, one hit by pitch and four earned runs in 12⅔ innings over the series. Sage Mardjetko had four strikeouts, six hits allowed, eight walks and five earned runs in 5⅓ innings. Erin Nuwer pitched three innings with two strikeouts, one hit allowed, one walk and one hit by pitch.

Oklahoma softball offense has firepower

The Sooners once again have one of the strongest offenses in the country. They rank No. 2 in home runs per game (2.02) with 115 on the season. Oklahoma is No. 5 in scoring with an average of 7.75 runs per game and 442 total.

Ella Parker leads OU’s offense with a .416 batting average, and Kasidi Pickering is right behind her at .413. Four more batters are hitting above .300, and Gabbie Garcia leads the team with 20 home runs. Pickering has hit 18 homers, and six Sooners total have hit at least 11 this season.

They also don’t strike out often. The Sooners have only struck out 207 times, which is only 3.63 times per game.

Karlyn Pickens vs Sam Landry pitchers’ duel is brewing

Senior right-hander Sam Landry (23-4) became the Sooners’ ace after transferring from Louisiana. She leads the OU staff with a 1.92 ERA with 170 strikeouts in 167⅔ innings pitched.

Tennessee had eight hits against Landry in Game 1, but then it was held to four hits in the next two games.

Pickens (24-9), the back-to-back SEC Pitcher of the Year, leads Tennessee’s staff with a 1.00 ERA. She has thrown 280 strikeouts in 204 innings, and opponents have hit .168 against her. In two straight elimination games against Nebraska, Pickens threw 21 strikeouts in 14 innings with only seven hits allowed, two walks and two earned runs.

Karlyn Pickens throws fastest softball pitch ever recorded – again

Pickens already broke Monica Abbott’s record for fastest softball pitch ever recorded in March when she threw 78.2 mph against Arkansas. But she topped her own record in Game 3 against Nebraska.

In the first at-bat of the game, Pickens threw 79.4 mph. It was Nebraska pitcher Jordy Bahl’s first at-bat of the game, and she fouled off the record-breaking pitch.

Pickens had already hit 77 mph twice this season before breaking the record Abbott originally set the record during a National Pro Fastpitch game in 2012.

Tennessee softball vs Oklahoma: Series history

Tennessee is 7-8 all time against Oklahoma, which owns a 4-3 record vs the Lady Vols at neutral sites. After taking the road series in March, Tennessee is 4-3 against OU in Norman.

Before meeting for the first time in SEC play this season, the last time Tennessee faced the Sooners was in the opening game of the 2023 WCWS. Oklahoma beat the Lady Vols 9-0 in five innings.

Watch Tennessee softball vs. Oklahoma on Fubo (free trial)

What time does Tennessee softball vs Oklahoma start?

• Date: Thursday, May 29
• Time: 2:30 p.m. ET  
• Where: Devon Park in Oklahoma City

What TV channel is Tennessee softball vs Oklahoma on?  

Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma could extend its record run of consecutive national titles to five at this year’s Women’s College World Series.

Patty Gasso’s second-seeded Sooners will face No. 7 seed Tennessee in their WCWS opener. Oklahoma beat Alabama on Saturday to win the Norman Super Regional.

Action in the eight-team double-elimination bracket begins Thursday at Devon Park. The final two teams will play for the title in a best-of-three series starting June 4.

Gasso, who will coach the United States at the 2028 Summer Olympics, has led the Sooners to eight national titles, including six of the past eight and seven of 10. This was Oklahoma’s first season in the Southeastern Conference.

In other opening-day matchups, third-seeded Florida will play No. 6 seed Texas, No. 9 seed UCLA meets No. 16 seed Oregon and No. 12 seed Texas Tech will face unseeded Mississippi.

Oklahoma will face Tennessee star pitcher Karlyn Pickens, who broke her NCAA record by throwing a 79.4 mph pitch during Saturday’s win over Nebraska. Pickens then shut out the Cornhuskers 1-0 on Sunday.

Nebraska’s loss means Oklahoma won’t be facing former Sooners pitcher Jordy Bahl, who transferred to her home-state Cornhuskers after being named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 World Series with Oklahoma.

Although No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M was knocked out in regional play, the SEC has five teams in the field — Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Ole Miss.

Florida beat Georgia in three games to advance. The Gators won national titles in 2014 and 2015 and lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals last year.

Texas has reached the best-of-three championship series in two of the past three seasons, with both losses coming to Oklahoma. The Longhorns are also in their first season in the SEC.

Texas Tech and Ole Miss are first-time qualifiers.

Texas Tech beat host Florida State in a super regional. Pitcher NiJaree Canady, last year’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, led Stanford to the national semifinals two straight years before transferring to Tech. She led the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles.

Ole Miss is the only unseeded team remaining. The Rebels beat Arizona twice to win the Tucson Regional and beat Arkansas in super regionals.

UCLA and Oregon will meet in a matchup of former Pac-12 teams that moved to the Big Ten this year.

Oregon, the Big Ten regular-season champion, defeated upstart Liberty to advance. Liberty stunned Texas A&M in regional play, but couldn’t get past the Ducks.

UCLA was down to its last out against South Carolina in Game 2 before winning, then took Game 3. The Bruins could add to their record 12 World Series titles.