The Southeastern Conference announced on May 8 that Tennessee’s Alannah Leach, Sage Mardjetko, and Karlyn Pickens have been named to the First Team All-SEC for the 2026 postseason softball awards. Pickens was also selected for the SEC All-Defensive Team.
These honors highlight the achievements of three key players from Tennessee’s team this season. The recognition is significant as it reflects their performances among all athletes in one of college softball’s most competitive conferences.
Leach had a standout junior year, batting .330 overall and .339 during conference play. She led her team with 12 home runs—seven of which came against SEC opponents—and set career highs in nearly every offensive category. Over 53 games, including 38 starts, Leach scored 27 runs, collected 37 hits and drove in 23 runs while posting a .670 slugging percentage and a .419 on-base percentage.
Mardjetko excelled as a pitcher this season with a league-best earned run average (ERA) of 0.96 and a record of 12 wins and two losses over her appearances. She struck out a career-high total of 150 batters across more than one hundred innings pitched. In SEC games alone, she maintained an ERA of just over one run per game with six wins out of seven decisions and threw her first no-hitter on February 22 against Southern Illinois Salukis.
Pickens received her fourth career All-SEC honor and third first-team selection as a senior right-handed pitcher. Her ERA stands at 1.52 overall (1.79 in conference), with a total of 157 strikeouts this season—including eighty-four against SEC opponents—ranking her fourth in ERA within the conference and seventh in strikeouts while leading nationally by allowing only about three hits per seven innings pitched.
Since its entry into the Southeastern Conference in 1997, Tennessee has produced ninety All-SEC selections by forty-nine different student-athletes according to league records. The annual postseason teams are chosen by votes from all fifteen head coaches; each team consists of twenty-four student-athletes along with nine members on an All-Defensive Team.
