OKLAHOMA CITY — After a hard-fought, nine-inning thriller in the Women’s College World Series, emotions ran high between Taylor Pannell of the Texas Tech softball team and her former head coach at Tennessee, Karen Weekly.
After the Lady Vols earned a 2-1 win on Emma Clarke’s walk-off home run in the ninth, Tennessee took the press conference dais first. Weekly was asked what she said to Pannell in the postgame handshake line.
“Nothing,” Weekly responded. “Just good game, like I say to every player. Good game.”
Texas Tech’s press conference came after Tennessee’s, and Pannell has a different story.
“We were walking through the line, just saying good game,” Pannell said, “and (Weekly) said that I made a mistake instead of good game, which, it’s kind of crazy, like celebrate with the team, and I just think it’s funny she’s still thinking about it, but it’s old news, whatever.”
Gerry Glasco said he had no idea the alleged incident occurred. He went through the handshake line as normal.
“It happened behind me,” Glasco said. “I don’t know exactly what happened.”
Weekly denied ever saying this to Pannell to the Knoxville News Sentinel, saying, “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,” Weekly said. “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.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: War of words extends after Texas Tech, Tennessee softball WCWS game
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
