Tennessee Softball 2025

[tnsportsfan53]

Gonna grab anyone else from portal ??? Brooke Wells from Houston or Amari Harper from Tx A&M might fit.

 

[EZE]

It’s a multi billionaire’s wife who played softball at Tech …so this seems like her hobby so I doubt the gravy train stops

Well, there is a hard stop when eligibility ends. And then we’ll see how well ol’ Brandon prepared his girl for the real world.

 

[Hoosier]

Ok fine. I still want to call it IUPU. Such a shame that went away hahaha

well, that was Indianapolis (we called them Ooey Pooey); Fort Wayne used IPFW -- a lot of the media outlets these days go with just Fort Wayne, but Purdue doesn't like that -- as far as I know, the lawmakers never asked the citizens of FW what they would like the school to be named

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

First base looks to be Butt's to lose really need her to put up numbers like she did at Boise but if she could even go below that like 15 homers and 50 RBI's .330 average and .360 obp would easily replace what Boo did a a senior.
Second base was sold defensively with Dodge she needs to hit more. .242 average hopefully goes close to .300 and if she could hit double digit homeruns and double her RBI's would certainly see her keep the job at second. Her .347 obp is solid.
Shortstop big question mark, Barnhart hit .537 in high school if she could go .350 in college see her taking the job don't think Faw will ever be a .300 hitter.
Third Base biggest question mark next season Emma Clarke came on with her hitting a little near the end of the season, but still ended up .212 and only 2 home runs. Doyle was the mystery of the season have to see if she has anything to give in the big leagues.
See both Leaches taking the RF and LF jobs both have strong arms and think both will hit very well next season. I expect both to be vastly improved over this season.
The Centerfield job looks to belong to Knight she hit over .400 at Boise has a lot of speed. Same with Morgan who should be improved as well. I think were upgraded in center next season.
Catcher think Morrison is the better average hitter think she might be a little better defensively don't expect her to have the power Nugent had.
DH a lot of options Rutan might be the favorite.

Overall based on last season first base even, second should be a little better, shortstop questionable could go either way up or down, Third down from last season it appears, Right field upgrade, Center upgrade, Left upgrade, Dh upgrade, Catcher could go either way up or down.

Pitching upgrade Pickens and a lot of options to win number two and we could even see a lot of a number three.

Great analysis, gets me excited for next season already. And thanks Rickster for putting some SB stuff on here.

The TP stuff is wearing thin now. Lot of dirty laundry there and the dad is a real scum bag. Hope now that this is public some enforcement can be done but seems the NIL is just a wide open mess right now with no rules. Karen's post summed it up.

 

[Rickster]

Great analysis, gets me excited for next season already. And thanks Rickster for putting some SB stuff on here.......

I personally believe if Karen can field a top 5 SEC team next season, it will be one of her finest coaching jobs of the decade. She's had a lot of power and won a lot of games the last 4 seasons (West, Milloy, Puni, Boo, Pannell, Nugent) but in 2026, a lot of that power will come from new players. Clarke, Dodge and Leach are the big returning bats. Several newcomers hit well for their respective teams last year but didn't face much SEC pitching and that may take some time to acclimate to.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

I personally believe if Karen can field a top 5 SEC team next season, it will be one of her finest coaching jobs of the decade. She's had a lot of power and won a lot of games the last 4 seasons (West, Milloy, Puni, Boo, Pannell, Nugent) but in 2026, a lot of that power will come from new players. Clarke, Dodge and Leach are the big returning bats. Several newcomers hit well for their respective teams last year but didn't face much SEC pitching and that may take some time to acclimate to.

IMO, the best teams I saw last season had the combo of power hitters and small ball ability. Need better bunters than we had last season but looks like Karen may have the options to do both. Looks like we have some speed players coming in.

 

[WashedUpDad]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

 

[ETNVolunteer1]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

 

[UTKev37]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

Let's go Brandon.

IYKWIMAITYD

 

[William_77]

Could be a long rest of the year for Pickens also. I don’t see her repeating as pitcher of the year and potentially all conference either. With the team’s performance and her stats she’s got a lot of ground to make up to catch other pitchers in the SEC statistically already.

Does she look to go cash in with the portal with the future not looking to bright here

This aged poorly.

 

[Rickster]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

Sad behavior by a parent towards his daughters coach. Hope TT is made aware of his posts.

 

[Majors]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

Is this one of them too?

 

[ETNVolunteer1]

This aged poorly.

Thank goodness this absolute clown is away from our team now. Thank you, Texas Tech, for getting him away from our program. Toxic individual.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Well, Pannell sure gave all her focus and hitting power and team spirit in her last hurrah as a Tennessee Lady Vol, didn't she? What a great job she did, which is why it hurts so much she's leaving Knoxville.

Frriends, I don't know about anyone else's family financial situations, but for most folks I know the prospect of receiving $350,000 as a teen would be life-changing. Myself and nearly everyone I know have never received $350,000 in one year -- not even close to that! -- EVER, and if they ever had it would likely have made their entite lives easier.

Imagine how Pannell's parents must feel knowing their daughter is starting out her young adult life with a super-nice nest-egg instead of a mountain of debt? She's already got enough money she could buy a modest house and a new car to start out with. That's HUGE. I've known seniors who worked their entire lives and never could get out of financial Hell well enough to buy a home. And now we have kids getting paid very well to play college ball ON TOP OF their degrees paid for.

Pretty darn happy parents, I'd say.

ANYWAY, all this to say that while a big part of me wishes the staff and her teammates could have known sooner, another part of me is kinda glad they didn't because I suspect her leaving would have monopolized the news and sucked some of the good energy the program had going into post season.

Given TP's slump leading up to post-season, she very well may have been feeling the guilt/pressure of it all. She probably paid a toll emotionally. But thank goodness she got it together before Itvwas too late.

Just throwing this out there: I wonder now if she was worried that if she DID tell everyone much sooner she was likely going to transfer that she would be shunned or treated differently or even given a lesser role to play. I wonder if she was afraid she'd be replaced with a player Karen would want to get some experience for next year?

Just thinking out loud here and really know nothing except that I'm grateful that Pannell was a terrific player for most of her career in Knoxville, I'll miss seeing her in orange, and I wish her a happy life. Unlike many, I can't seem to get mad at her because I suspect she and her family must have had what they felt were very good reasons for their decision to transfer and the way they went about it. We're all just doing the best we can, and none of us is perfect.

Sounds to me like we've got some strong players coming in for next year, and I'm already looking forward to seeing how they do!

Nothing wrong with WHAT she did, EVERYTHING wrong about when she did it. Lack of character is what it is, even if driven by the gene pool. Like always I will hope folks exiting under similar circumstances to have a healthy but anticlimactic personal career.

 

[volman128]

He deleted his x posts from yesterday, but this is the kind of human being we’re talking about.

I said I didn’t wish her well and people actually tried to shame me for it lol

 

[volman128]

Its funny he called out Karen's "behavior" versus UCLA/Ohio State coaches. If he only knew... Inouye-Perez may not be as outspoken but shes not a wallflower. TTU is drawing attention of all the wrong people in the wrong places with this softball class.

Not to mention…his daughter will be playing for the biggest douche canoe in college softball since Ehren Earlywhine.

 

[volforlife10]

Just so we are ALL VERY clear, Brandon Pannell is the author and owner of the OrangePark account. Always has been! Trashing his own daughters team, coaches and attempting
To stir the pot on the daily. He has numerous fake accounts on all social media platforms.

if true, the way he talked about other girls on the team is just crazy. i kinda feel for TP bc if that was my dad i’d lose my mind. OrangePark did always use girl emojis, so i always assumed they were a girl.

 

[Rickster]

Nothing wrong with WHAT she did, EVERYTHING wrong about when she did it. Lack of character is what it is, even if driven by the gene pool. Like always I will hope folks exiting under similar circumstances to have a healthy but anticlimactic personal career.

....and how they did it. Everyone now knows Brandon's work first hand.

 

[AllVols3]

if true, the way he talked about other girls on the team is just crazy. i kinda feel for TP bc if that was my dad i’d lose my mind. OrangePark did always use girl emojis, so i always assumed they were a girl.

He does squat to pee, if that counts.

 

[volman128]

if true, the way he talked about other girls on the team is just crazy. i kinda feel for TP bc if that was my dad i’d lose my mind. OrangePark did always use girl emojis, so i always assumed they were a girl.

He isn’t the first parent to do this. Melissa Davin’s dad was toxic af and was constantly putting other players on the team down. He was always in my DMs on The Summitt about how Chavanne, Shipman and Gibson were Ralph’s pets and compared how his daughter was treated to an abusive marriage. Every year he told she was transferring, but she wound up staying for four years.

Then you have parents like Kevin and Jamie Chavanne who were the total opposite and didn’t get involved in that stuff at all.

Sports parents can definitely be toxic, but for some reason softball tends to be the worst sport. And the Weeklys have definitely dealt with their share through the years.

 

[Majors]

He isn’t the first parent to do this. Melissa Davin’s dad was toxic af and was constantly putting other players on the team down. He was always in my DMs on The Summitt about how Chavanne, Shipman and Gibson were Ralph’s pets and compared how his daughter was treated to an abusive marriage. Every year he told she was transferring, but she wound up staying for four years.

Then you have parents like Kevin and Jamie Chavanne who were the total opposite and didn’t get involved in that stuff at all.

Sports parents can definitely be toxic, but for some reason softball tends to be the worst sport. And the Weeklys have definitely dealt with their share through the years.

Most stay away from posting, many lurk. Best was Cromptons parents on Volquest years ago.

 

[WashedUpDad]

if true, the way he talked about other girls on the team is just crazy. i kinda feel for TP bc if that was my dad i’d lose my mind. OrangePark did always use girl emojis, so i always assumed they were a girl.

It is 1000000000% true. He has trashed and belittled the entire team as well as coaches for 3 years. On multiple platforms. Notice since I first mentioned this a while back, he has not posted once!

 

[WVU05UT09]

It is 1000000000% true. He has trashed and belittled the entire team as well as coaches for 3 years. On multiple platforms. Notice since I first mentioned this a while back, he has not posted once!

In the middle of the chaos yesterday did anyone notice the comment he left on a tweet (it was either a Texas Tech softball/transfer portal twitter account can't remember) regarding Mia Williams transferring from Florida to Texas Tech. He said to leave her drama/crazy ass (paraphrasing) parents at home.

The irony....

 

[volman128]

Most stay away from posting, many lurk. Best was Cromptons parents on Volquest years ago.

Jasmine Jones' mother and Arian Foster's mother were horrible on The Summitt. Literally couldn't pay them to keep off the boards. And the mods and pollyannas expected everyone to walk on egg shells because of them.

 

[Majors]

Jasmine Jones' mother and Arian Foster's mother were horrible on The Summitt. Literally couldn't pay them to keep off the boards. And the mods and pollyannas expected everyone to walk on egg shells because of them.

Believe Fosters mom was on VQ too. I don’t remember her being a problem, always chill was Kevin Simons dad.