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Tennessee Flamethrower Hurls the Fastest Pitch Recorded in College Softball History

That ball was moving.

Kyle Koster

Karlyn Pickens brought the heat.
Karlyn Pickens brought the heat. / ESPN

Karlyn Pickens came in from the Tennessee bullpen to hurl 4 1/3 innings of hitless ball to pick up the win in the Volunteers' 3-2 victory over Arkansas on Monday night, along the way making some history with her blazing fastball.

Pickens delivered a pitch at 78 mph in the sixth inning, which is the fastest ever recorded in a college softball game. The Arkansas batter took it for a called strike right at the knees.

Pickens has been an extremely difficult at-bat for opposing hitters this year as she moved her record to 11-4 with the victory. She's also now racked up 131 strikeouts over 89 1/3 innings, which is very easy to understand when she's throwing such consistent gas.

A thrown pitch of 78.2 mph from the softball rubber is equivalent to 100 mph-plus from a baseball mound, though there's a decent amount of disagreement about the physics and conversion rates online. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that it is very, very fast and no one would willingly sign up to face that every day.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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