OKLAHOMA CITY -- More than a decade before Tennessee's Karlyn Pickens fired the fastest softball pitch ever recorded, Dana Fussetti discovered an elementary school-aged pitcher and foretold a prophecy.
Fussetti, a Greenville, South Carolina-based softball coach, was in the middle of a hitting lesson when she first identified Pickens and her overwhelming promise. The eventual All-American ace was just 10 years old at the time. But from across the facility, Fussetti quickly became transfixed by the "lanky beanpole," who had long arms, polished mechanics and velocity in the mid-50s.
Fussetti spent the next hour watching Pickens throw, so consumed with the talent-beyond-her-years pitcher that she ended up giving the hitting session away for free.
"I could not take my eyes off of her," Fussetti told ESPN. "After my lesson, I sat down with Karlyn's dad, Phil. I told him: 'If your daughter sticks with softball, she will be the hardest throwing pitcher in the history of the sport."'
Earlier this spring, Fussetti's prediction came true. In a relief outing against Arkansas on March 24, Pickens was clocked at 78.2 miles per hour, shattering the game's previous all-time mark of 77 mph. Two months later, Pickens broke her own record on the 79.4 mph fireball she threw to Nebraska's Jordy Bahl in the first inning of Game 2 in the Knoxville Super Regional.
"I called her dad after she broke the record against Arkansas," Fussetti said. "He said, 'Well, you were right.' He really thought I was just trying to blow sunshine up their butts. But I knew this kid was amazing. She's one in a million."
Tennessee pitcher Karlyn Pickens fires a 78.2 mph strike for the fastest-recorded pitch in college softball history.
Pickens has emerged as not only the hardest thrower softball has ever seen, but one of the sport's elite pitchers in her junior season this spring.
Pickens entered play at the 2025 WCWS this week ranked second nationally in ERA (1.00), fifth in strikeouts (280) and seventh in innings pitched (204). She spent the bulk of the Lady Vols' WCWS opener against Oklahoma mowing down the four-time defending champions, striking out seven Sooners and allowing only one run on three hits over the initial six innings.
The only stains on Pickens' third-ever WCWS outing: a pair of home runs off the bat of Oklahoma's Ella Parker, including a three-run, walk-off blast that sent No. 7 seed Tennessee into the tournament's losers bracket.
On Friday, with the Lady Vols' season on the line against No. 3 seed Florida (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2), Pickens is expected to be in the circle again.
"Karlyn is as steady as they come," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said Thursday. "She's the ultimate warrior. Ninety-nine times out of 100, she wins that game [today]. What I expect going into tomorrow from Karlyn and this entire team, we've been here [before]."
How did Pickens come to take on a vital role with the Lady Vols and throw the fastest pitches in softball history? Fussetti isn't the only one who saw it coming.
Stacey Whitfield-Johnson, who led Furman's softball program from 2021 to 2025, was the pitching coach working with Pickens the day Fussetti spotted her. Not long after, Pickens -- who had to look beyond her hometown of Weaverville, North Carolina, for elite softball -- joined Carolina Elite, a travel ball team Fussetti and Whitfield-Johnson helped run.
Blessed with hands that can palm basketballs, long arms and eventually a 6-foot-1 build, paired with a perpetual eagerness to hone every part of her pitching motion, Pickens developed into a flamethrower.
At 12 years old, Pickens was hitting 60 mph on the radar gun, and her velocity rose steadily through high school. By the time she committed to Tennessee as a junior in November 2021, Pickens was consistently clocking in at 70 mph and taking a toll on the catchers at North Carolina's North Buncombe High School.
"Our catcher Juliana Mendoza would have to tape her hands after games because they were just bruised. She even tried EvoShield pads to stop the force from her hand," former North Buncombe head coach Tiffani Ferguson said.
Pickens' speed made her an uncommon power arm in rural North Carolina. In the college ranks, she has only so much more company. Many of the top pitchers in the sport max out somewhere between 60 and 70 mph, distinguishing themselves on their ability to mix pitches and changes. A handful of the game's hardest throwers hang in the mid-70s -- Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady hit 75 mph while pitching for Stanford in the 2024 WCWS.
Monica Abbott, the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year in 2007 and a two-time Olympic medalist, knows velocity well. It was the former Lady Vol who set the previous record for fastest pitch with a 77 mph fastball in a National Pro Fastpitch game in 2012. Pickens matched that mark twice earlier this season before eclipsing Abbott's record.
"You don't wake up one day throwing 70 or 75 or 79 mph," Abbott said. "There's so many factors that go into being successful at that speed. Work ethic and consistency like Karlyn has is how you get your speed to jump like that."
In 2023, Pickens made 28 appearances and was named SEC Freshman of the Year. But from a hard-throwing freshman who at times struggled with command, she has developed into a controlled fireballer and a versatile pitcher over three seasons at Tennessee.
Pickens, a three-sport athlete in high school, has transformed her physical frame under a committed softball focus and a Division I strength program. A move into the full-time role has shifted her mentality as a program leader from the circle. And working with Lady Vols pitching coach Megan Rhodes Smith, Pickens has developed her secondary pitches, sharpening the rise ball, drop ball and changeup that now complement her fastball.
"I remember coming into this year, she said: My goal isn't to just throw them. My goal is to love them as much as I love throwing my fastball," Weekly said. "That's why you see her doing what she's doing now."
Watching from home, Abbott -- who has grown close with Pickens over the past year -- and former coaches see a new brand of determination in the typically self-assured pitcher leading the Lady Vols this spring. Equipped with an improved repertoire and an ace mentality, Pickens coolly navigated super regional jams and several tricky spots against Oklahoma on Thursday, the same confidence that Pickens believes helped push her velocity to 79.4 mph.
"I would say my team fuels really all of my pitching, knowing that they're behind me, knowing that my goal is to, at the end of the day, win for my team," Pickens said this week. "So I think that is a big motivator for me to continue to push and grow as a pitcher and reach new heights."
Abbott has been most impressed with Pickens' calm demeanor and focus this spring. Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso has commended her for setting a new standard across the sport.
"There's a lot of little girls that are going to be going, 'Wow, I just hit 60 mph. Only 19 more miles [per hour] to go!"' the eight-time national champion said.
On Friday, Pickens will get the opportunity to write the latest chapter in her junior season in a do-or-die elimination game against Florida.
What lies ahead for Pickens -- at the WCWS, in her senior season next spring, with NIL as the sport's premier power pitcher -- is unknown. From South Carolina, however, Fussetti has one prediction.
"When Karlyn hangs out at a certain number for a while, there's about to be another jump," she said. "She will be hitting probably 80-81 mph before she graduates."