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When Karlyn Pickens was a young pitcher learning to perfect her craft, she got into the habit of comparing herself — and her velocity — to others who played her position.
Her private pitching coach displayed a list of the record speeds achieved by other players she tutored. Pickens became obsessed with moving up the list. She laughs at the memory now, because the two-time All-American didn’t just climb toward the top — she set a new standard.
And she’s still thinking about how she can get faster.
Pickens, who holds the record for throwing the fastest softball pitch, will lead seventh-seeded Tennessee into the Super Regionals this weekend against 10th-seeded Georgia as the Lady Vols seek a second consecutive appearance in the Women’s College World Series. Her record-setting throw, which clocked in at 79.4 mph, is comparable to a baseball pitcher throwing about 110 mph from 60 feet, 6 inches away (the softball rubber is 43 feet away). Now, she’s chasing 80 mph, a once-unthinkable milestone in softball.
Stakeholders around the sport say the question isn’t if Pickens will throw 80, but when. The excitement around hitting that particular number won’t solely be about celebrating Pickens, though — it’ll be about opening the door for the next generation.
“You don’t always believe you can do something until you see somebody else do it,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. “But then it’s like, ‘Well, why not me?’ I think back to the four-minute mile — that probably took as long as it did because everybody just thought, ‘That’s not possible.’ But now …”
Pickens and Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady, both seniors, have been considered college softball’s best pitchers throughout their careers, though they’re decidedly different throwers.
Canady, who stands 6 feet tall, regularly throws in the low- to mid-70s, cruising her rise ball past bewildered hitters. Canady said it would be “crazy” for anyone to hit 80 mph, though personally she’s not thinking about her velocity as much as “keeping hitters off balance — and it’s hard to time that up with throwing that fast.”
At 6 feet 1, Pickens is just an inch taller than Canady, but her long limbs help build power from the circle. It helps to picture Pickens’ windup like stretching a rubber band to its max and releasing it — or, in Pickens’ case, letting go of the ball — to generate a remarkable amount of force.
Mike Candrea, the two-time Team USA coach who won eight NCAA championships with Arizona, said if you were building a pitcher with only speed in mind, you’d design someone like Pickens, who has “long levers.”
“Think of it like this: If you have a short rope and swing it in a circle, the outside of that circle is not gonna be nearly as fast as if you have a long rope,” he explained. “But the best pitchers have to have speed, movement and deception. It’s more than just who can throw the hardest.”
Pickens knows that firsthand. Long obsessed with throwing the fastest, she struggled with command at times in her career — and her walks per seven innings are a career-high 3.2 in 2026. Part of her success has come, she said, by focusing less on velocity.
Candrea goes back and forth between thinking the 80 mph mark is just a matter of time and being astonished that his sport has reached this point.
“That we’re even talking about someone being able to hit 80, that’s phenomenal,” he said.
Outsiders might believe that throwing 80 mph would be easy to achieve, since Pickens has already reached 79.4, but it’s more complicated than that.
“When I first hit 60 — around the seventh grade, I think — it came fairly quickly,” she said. “Then I hit 65 within maybe a year and a half. That’s a 5 mph jump. That’s big, but at that time, I’m also developing and getting stronger. Now, I’m pretty much grown. The harder you start to throw, the harder it gets to increase that mile-per-hour rate. To go from throwing 73 as a freshman to 74, that took a whole year.”
It’s similar to a sprinter shaving off a tenth of a second in the 100- or 200-meter dash. On the surface, the difference might appear minuscule. In practice, the gap is significant.
Adrenaline plays an important role, too.
“It’s almost less about your preparation and physical stamina and more about the stakes of the game,” Pickens said. “It’s not like I’m throwing anywhere close to 79 or 80 mph on any given day in the bullpen.”
Consider that her two fastest pitches both came in pressure-packed situations: She hit 78.2 mph in a crucial top-15 matchup against Arkansas in March 2025 and clocked 79.4 mph in the 2025 Super Regional against Nebraska. She craves the big moment, and she tends to deliver during it.
“The fastest pitches she’s thrown to date have been in supercompetitive situations, against the best hitter on the opposing team,” Weekly said. “We’re about to enter the highest-stakes part of our season, and that’s when Karlyn is at her best.”
Here’s the wildest part about Pickens’ chase for 80: At just 22 years old, she’s not even close to her peak. She’s confident she can hit 80, even if it comes after college. She knows it’ll take a special situation.
Would the gold medal game at the 2028 Summer Olympics, which is scheduled to be played in Oklahoma City, count?
“Yes!” she cried. “Put that on the record.”
Like many in her generation, Pickens grew up watching — and idolizing — Jennie Finch, who played for Candrea at Arizona, where she helped the Wildcats win the 2001 title, and pitched in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. College softball wasn’t widely available on TV back then, and professional softball didn’t have a strong foundation, so Pickens and her dad watched YouTube videos of Finch.
Now, Finch watches Pickens and marvels at what she sees.
“When I played, if you could throw in the high 60s, you were in a league of your own,” Finch said. “When I hit 70, then 72, that was another stage for me. I stood in the (batter’s) box and had someone throw mid-70s, and that was crazy fast. I can’t imagine what 80 would be like.’
Finch pointed out that for years, it was rare for an MLB pitcher to touch 100. Now, nearly every team has a pitcher who can.
“I think about us and the women who came before us,” she said. “We didn’t have this platform; we didn’t get to see any of this. But now, my 13-year-old daughter is watching women breaking barriers and breaking records every day.”
Pickens often thinks about pushing beyond what most think the human body is capable of. She has long admired tennis legend Serena Williams’ return to Grand Slam tennis after giving birth to her first child in September 2017. If Williams could do what many thought impossible, why couldn’t Pickens?
“It would be huge for me, yes,” Pickens said. “But really, I’m trying to instill in young girls that they can go have these crazy big dreams. Showing everyone how capable women are, that you can hit a new threshold and then reach for more. Just constantly raising the bar for female athletes — that’s the goal for all of us.”
Finch believes that with continued investment in women’s sports at the college and professional levels, Pickens and her peers are just scratching the surface. Soon, the discussion won’t be about one person throwing 80 mph.
It’ll be about how many other pitchers follow her.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Texas Tech Red Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Texas Tech Lady Raiders, College Sports, Women's College Sports
2026 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
Her private pitching coach displayed a list of the record speeds achieved by other players she tutored. Pickens became obsessed with moving up the list. She laughs at the memory now, because the two-time All-American didn’t just climb toward the top — she set a new standard.
And she’s still thinking about how she can get faster.
Pickens, who holds the record for throwing the fastest softball pitch, will lead seventh-seeded Tennessee into the Super Regionals this weekend against 10th-seeded Georgia as the Lady Vols seek a second consecutive appearance in the Women’s College World Series. Her record-setting throw, which clocked in at 79.4 mph, is comparable to a baseball pitcher throwing about 110 mph from 60 feet, 6 inches away (the softball rubber is 43 feet away). Now, she’s chasing 80 mph, a once-unthinkable milestone in softball.
Stakeholders around the sport say the question isn’t if Pickens will throw 80, but when. The excitement around hitting that particular number won’t solely be about celebrating Pickens, though — it’ll be about opening the door for the next generation.
“You don’t always believe you can do something until you see somebody else do it,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. “But then it’s like, ‘Well, why not me?’ I think back to the four-minute mile — that probably took as long as it did because everybody just thought, ‘That’s not possible.’ But now …”
Pickens and Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady, both seniors, have been considered college softball’s best pitchers throughout their careers, though they’re decidedly different throwers.
Canady, who stands 6 feet tall, regularly throws in the low- to mid-70s, cruising her rise ball past bewildered hitters. Canady said it would be “crazy” for anyone to hit 80 mph, though personally she’s not thinking about her velocity as much as “keeping hitters off balance — and it’s hard to time that up with throwing that fast.”
At 6 feet 1, Pickens is just an inch taller than Canady, but her long limbs help build power from the circle. It helps to picture Pickens’ windup like stretching a rubber band to its max and releasing it — or, in Pickens’ case, letting go of the ball — to generate a remarkable amount of force.
Mike Candrea, the two-time Team USA coach who won eight NCAA championships with Arizona, said if you were building a pitcher with only speed in mind, you’d design someone like Pickens, who has “long levers.”
“Think of it like this: If you have a short rope and swing it in a circle, the outside of that circle is not gonna be nearly as fast as if you have a long rope,” he explained. “But the best pitchers have to have speed, movement and deception. It’s more than just who can throw the hardest.”
Pickens knows that firsthand. Long obsessed with throwing the fastest, she struggled with command at times in her career — and her walks per seven innings are a career-high 3.2 in 2026. Part of her success has come, she said, by focusing less on velocity.
Candrea goes back and forth between thinking the 80 mph mark is just a matter of time and being astonished that his sport has reached this point.
“That we’re even talking about someone being able to hit 80, that’s phenomenal,” he said.
Outsiders might believe that throwing 80 mph would be easy to achieve, since Pickens has already reached 79.4, but it’s more complicated than that.
“When I first hit 60 — around the seventh grade, I think — it came fairly quickly,” she said. “Then I hit 65 within maybe a year and a half. That’s a 5 mph jump. That’s big, but at that time, I’m also developing and getting stronger. Now, I’m pretty much grown. The harder you start to throw, the harder it gets to increase that mile-per-hour rate. To go from throwing 73 as a freshman to 74, that took a whole year.”
It’s similar to a sprinter shaving off a tenth of a second in the 100- or 200-meter dash. On the surface, the difference might appear minuscule. In practice, the gap is significant.
Adrenaline plays an important role, too.
“It’s almost less about your preparation and physical stamina and more about the stakes of the game,” Pickens said. “It’s not like I’m throwing anywhere close to 79 or 80 mph on any given day in the bullpen.”
Consider that her two fastest pitches both came in pressure-packed situations: She hit 78.2 mph in a crucial top-15 matchup against Arkansas in March 2025 and clocked 79.4 mph in the 2025 Super Regional against Nebraska. She craves the big moment, and she tends to deliver during it.
“The fastest pitches she’s thrown to date have been in supercompetitive situations, against the best hitter on the opposing team,” Weekly said. “We’re about to enter the highest-stakes part of our season, and that’s when Karlyn is at her best.”
Here’s the wildest part about Pickens’ chase for 80: At just 22 years old, she’s not even close to her peak. She’s confident she can hit 80, even if it comes after college. She knows it’ll take a special situation.
Would the gold medal game at the 2028 Summer Olympics, which is scheduled to be played in Oklahoma City, count?
“Yes!” she cried. “Put that on the record.”
Like many in her generation, Pickens grew up watching — and idolizing — Jennie Finch, who played for Candrea at Arizona, where she helped the Wildcats win the 2001 title, and pitched in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. College softball wasn’t widely available on TV back then, and professional softball didn’t have a strong foundation, so Pickens and her dad watched YouTube videos of Finch.
Now, Finch watches Pickens and marvels at what she sees.
“When I played, if you could throw in the high 60s, you were in a league of your own,” Finch said. “When I hit 70, then 72, that was another stage for me. I stood in the (batter’s) box and had someone throw mid-70s, and that was crazy fast. I can’t imagine what 80 would be like.’
Finch pointed out that for years, it was rare for an MLB pitcher to touch 100. Now, nearly every team has a pitcher who can.
“I think about us and the women who came before us,” she said. “We didn’t have this platform; we didn’t get to see any of this. But now, my 13-year-old daughter is watching women breaking barriers and breaking records every day.”
Pickens often thinks about pushing beyond what most think the human body is capable of. She has long admired tennis legend Serena Williams’ return to Grand Slam tennis after giving birth to her first child in September 2017. If Williams could do what many thought impossible, why couldn’t Pickens?
“It would be huge for me, yes,” Pickens said. “But really, I’m trying to instill in young girls that they can go have these crazy big dreams. Showing everyone how capable women are, that you can hit a new threshold and then reach for more. Just constantly raising the bar for female athletes — that’s the goal for all of us.”
Finch believes that with continued investment in women’s sports at the college and professional levels, Pickens and her peers are just scratching the surface. Soon, the discussion won’t be about one person throwing 80 mph.
It’ll be about how many other pitchers follow her.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Texas Tech Red Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Texas Tech Lady Raiders, College Sports, Women's College Sports
2026 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
