Tennessee’s leading hitter this past softball season is no longer in the program, which isn’t sitting well with coach Karen Weekly.
Taylor Pannell started all 64 games for the Lady Volunteers during their stellar 47-17 season that ended in the Women’s College World Series semifinals, but she entered the NCAA transfer portal Thursday afternoon and committed that night to Texas Tech. The 5-foot-8 redshirt sophomore third baseman from Milan, Illinois, paced Tennessee with a .398 batting average, 65 RBIs, 139 total bases, a .747 slugging percentage and a .493 on-base percentage.
On Friday afternoon, Weekly expressed her frustration with Pannell’s change of locales on her X account, posting: “I think we can all agree on 2 things: 1) women making money in sports is awesome and long overdue; 2) contacting players (directly or indirectly) before their season ends and signing them to NIL deals before they enter the portal is wrong. Money isn’t the issue – tampering is!”
Pannell went 8-of-14 at the plate during Tennessee’s four WCWS games at Devon Park in Oklahoma City for a .571 average. In the thrilling 5-4 win over UCLA on June 1 that required nine innings, she went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored, including the game-winner.
The Lady Vols were eliminated by Texas 2-0 on June 2, and two days later Pannell posted “Living the dream” on X with a picture of her scoring the winning run against UCLA.
Texas ultimately beat Texas Tech in the best-of-three championship series, with both of those programs posting their best seasons ever. The runner-up Red Raiders reached the finals behind pitcher NiJaree Canady, who received a seven-figure name, image and likeness deal to transfer from Stanford and landed another seven-figure NIL deal last week.
In an effort to surround Canady with the best roster possible in 2026, the Red Raiders have not only acquired Pannell via the transfer portal but Ohio State catcher Jazzy Burns (.455 average, 25 home runs in 2025), UCLA pitcher Kaitlyn Terry (20-5, 2.64 ERA), Florida second baseman Mia Williams (.336, 19 homers) and Southern Illinois shortstop Jackie Lis (.358, 48 RBIs).
Tennessee’s big additions through the portal since its season ended have been Boise State teammates Makenzie Butt and Sophia Knight. Butt played first base and hit .363 with 77 RBIs, while Knight played center field and hit .486.
Four more leave
Tennessee is now up to seven departures from its 2025 baseball roster following the exits of outfielder Colby Backus and pitchers Thomas Crabtree, Austin Nunley and Brayden Sharp. Backus hit .188 in 21 games this season, while Crabtree, Nunley and Sharp combined for 32 appearances but for only one combined inning of work against Southeastern Conference opposition.
Crabtree announced his commitment Friday night to Southern Mississippi.
Previously leaving the Vols were pitcher Bryson Thacker and infielders Jack Jones and Robinson Martin.
Getting the call
Christian Moore, the leadoff hitter and second baseman for the Vols on their 2024 national championship team, made his big-league debut Friday night for the Los Angeles Angels in Baltimore.
Moore played second base and was ninth in the batting order against the Orioles. The eighth overall pick of last summer’s Major League Baseball draft hit .545 in two games at Single-A Inland Empire (California), .271 in 57 games with the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas of the Southern League, and .350 with Triple-A Salt Lake before Friday’s promotion.
The 6-foot, 210-pounder played his sophomore season of high school at Baylor and last year shattered Tennessee’s single-season home run record with 34.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.