Tennessee softball coach Karen Weekly refutes handshake line claim by Taylor Pannell: 'An outright lie'

After three seasons at Tennessee under head coach Karen Weekly, coveted third baseman Taylor Pannell entered the Transfer Portal and ended up at Texas Tech. She played against her former program Saturday night in the Women’s College World Series, and was on the losing side of a 2-1 victory for the Volunteers.

Pannell made her mark on the game, as she scored the game-tying run which sent the game to extra innings. In the bottom of the ninth, Tennessee first baseman Emma Clarke belted a walk-off home run to deliver her team to the victory. Tennessee improved to 2-0 in WCWS play, while Texas Tech fell to 1-1 and is in jeopardy of being eliminated with one more loss prior to the Final.

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At the postgame press conference loss, Pannell claimed that her former head coach made a crude statement about making a mistake by transferring from Tennessee to Texas Tech.

“We were walking through the line just saying ‘good game,’ and she said that I made a mistake instead of saying ‘good game,’ which is kind of crazy,” Pannell said. “Like celebrate with your team. I just think it’s funny she’s still thinking about it. It’s old news. Whatever.”

Karen Weekly calls out Taylor Pannell’s claim, calls it ‘outright lie’© Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

Following Pannell’s claim however, Weekly quickly called out her former player for an ‘outright lie.’

“Good game, like I say to every player. Good game,” Weekly said. “If you rewatch at the tape of the handshake line, you’re going to see me go just as fast by her as anybody else. I didn’t even know where she was in the handshake line … that’s an outright lie. I said good game like I said to every other player.”

Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco also discussed the incident. He claimed he wasn’t quite sure what happened.

“I went through the handshake line, nothing. It happened behind me,” Glasco said in the postgame press conference. “So I don’t know exactly what happened.”

No matter what did or didn’t happen, all that matters is that Tennessee is the one celebrating at the end of the day. The Volunteers now get an off day and won’t play until Monday. Texas Tech, meanwhile, will clash against UCLA in a Women’s College World Series elimination game on Sunday. Neither Tennessee or Texas Tech has ever won the WCWS. The Red Raiders were the runner-up to Texas last season, and the ‘Vols have finished as runner-ups twice in program history (2007 and 2013).