The Tennessee Volunteers are still projected to host a regional in the latest field of 64 projections.

The Tennessee Volunteers built up some momentum during the SEC Tournament as they defeated both Alabama and Texas. However, yesterday the Volunteers got run ruled by the Vanderbilt Commodores by a final score of 10-0 in the semifinal round.

Coming into the tournament, Tennessee was not projected to host a regional after losing five straight conference series to close the regular season. After their two wins against Alabama and Texas though, they were projected to host a regional. Despite the loss to Vanderbilt, the Volunteers are still projected to host just a day out from the selection show.

According to Baseball America’s latest projections, Tennessee is projected to host Kansas, East Tennessee State and Binghamton. The Volunteers played East Tennessee State earlier in the season and lost to them in a mid week matchup.

Tennessee would not host a Super Regional if they moved on to the next round, but they are setting up to be in a good position for rhe start of the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will take place on Monday at noon.

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OTHER TENNESSEE NEWS

College softball’s fastest flamethrower just got faster.

Tennessee softball ace Karlyn Pickens had already thrown the fastest pitch ever recorded at 78.2 mph. But in the first inning of the super regional against Nebraska on May 24, she beat her own record.

Pickens threw 79.4 mph during Nebraska pitcher Jordy Bahl’s first at-bat of Game 2.

Pickens tied the previous record of 77 mph by Tennessee legend Monica Abbott earlier in the season twice before she broke it against Arkansas on March 24. Abbott originally set the record during a National Pro Fastpitch game in 2012.

The Weaverville, North Carolina, native is known for her velocity as one of the few pitchers to consistently throw in the mid 70s and higher.

Tennessee was tied 2-2 with Nebraska after the first inning. The No. 7 seed Lady Vols (43-15) lost Game 1 to the Huskers 5-2, and they would need to win Game 2 to extend their season and force a rubber match on May 25.

Pickens had already thrown five strikeouts in the first two innings of Game 2.

Pickens won her second straight SEC Pitcher of the Year award this season after leading the conference in ERA and strikeouts. She currently has a 0.99 ERA and 259 strikeouts on the season.

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.

The NCAA super regional in Knoxville started and ended with Jordy Bahl.

The Nebraska pitcher hit a single off Tennessee softball ace Karlyn Pickens on her first pitch of the game. Seven innings and a couple of costly Tennessee errors later, Bahl ended Nebraska’s 5-2 win on May 23 with a strikeout.

The No. 7 seed Lady Vols (43-15) are down one game in the best-of-three series at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. Going in, Tennessee was 8-0 in Game 1 of the super regionals at home. It has never advanced to the Women’s College World Series after dropping the first game of super regionals.

“Well, this is super regionals, and these are tough games,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. “We did some uncharacteristic things . . . But that’s postseason, some weird things are going to happen. It’s a marathon, that’s what I told these guys in our postgame. We’ve lost games on Friday night in SEC play, and we’ve come back and won the series. We just need to rely on that experience and come out here tomorrow, flush tonight.”

The Lady Vols will face Nebraska (43-13) in Game 2 of the super regional on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

What Karen Weekly said about lost challenge in fourth inning

Tennessee could have gotten out of the fourth inning multiple times before Nebraska built a four-run lead.

The Lady Vols had two outs in the fourth when Pickens threw a wild pitch. Bella Bacon attempted to steal second base, but catcher Sophia Nugent had a perfect throw to Laura Mealer. The throw comfortably beat Bacon and led Mealer right into the tag, but the umpire called Bacon safe.

Weekly challenged the call, and replays appeared to show Bacon sliding into Mealer’s glove. But the call on the field was upheld, and the inning continued.

“I mean, I’m thinking it’s a good challenge, because the throw beat her,” Weekly said. “So you’re thinking, OK, how do we not have an out there? And I’ll have to see the replay. I mean, they went to review. We don’t have all the camera angles that we have during the regular season. That’s unfortunate. But if we miss the tag, we miss the tag.”

Tennessee doomed by errors in second postseason game

The Lady Vols started the postseason with a loss in the SEC tournament due to two costly errors, and they had two critical errors in the Game 1 loss to Nebraska.

Those happened during the at-bat immediately after the challenge. Bahl hit a fly ball to shallow left field, and Mealer camped out under it, waving everyone off. But outfielder Saviya Morgan came running in and didn’t hear anyone call her off. Mealer backed off at the last second and Morgan missed the catch.

“(It’s) just one of those things where, they both made a mistake,” Weekly said. “Saviya came in and was calling a ball that wasn’t hers, and Laura, at that point in time, just needed to hold her ground and make the catch and not defer to Saviya.”

The ball bounced off Morgan’s foot to Pickens, who threw it home to try to keep another run from scoring. But her throw was off, and Nebraska scored twice and took a 5-1 lead. Weekly pulled Pickens, who had seven strikeouts.

“If we get out of that inning before that pop-up, we had a chance to put a tag on a runner at second base, the inning’s over right there,” Weekly said. “I think if we can kind of keep that at 3-1, we close it to 3-2 — Karlyn’s going to get in there and battle for you. I have a ton of faith in Karlyn. A ton of faith in Karlyn.”

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.