The Lady Vols pulled off a big upset on Thursday, taking down the Texas Longhorns, the defending national champions, in the first round of the College World Series in Oklahoma City.

Tennessee’s 6-3 win over Texas means the Lady Vols will take on Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon.

After the game, Longhorns head coach Mike White made a surprising admission that helps explains how the Lady Vols pulled off the upset.

Mike White admits Texas prepared more for Lady Vols star pitcher Karlyn Pickens

White told reporters after the game that his team prepared more for Lady Vols RHP Karlyn Pickens than RHP Sage Mardjetko, who started against the Longhorns.

“You’ve got to pick one or the other, and so I think we were more prepared for Karlyn than we were for Mardjetko,” said White. “But you know, but they’ve got a staff of three, and I think the lowest team ERA in the country, so pick your poison. And obviously we chose a little bit wrong.”

Mardjetko pitched the first four innings of the game, allowing one hit and zero earned runs before handing the ball to Pickens.

The Longhorns scored all three of their runs off Pickens (two earned runs), but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early four run deficit (the Lady Vols tacked on two runs in the the final two innings).

Texas clearly had more success against Pickens, which isn’t a surprise based on White’s comments. But you have to wonder why the Longhorns weren’t more prepared for Mardjetko. Pickens may be the ace, but Mardjetko is a high-level talent, too.

Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Maybe Mardjetko would’ve dominated anyway. But it was still an odd admission by White considering how much the Lady Vols used Mardjetko this season (she pitched 123 innings this season while Pickens pitched 135 innings).

You’ve gotta credit Karen Weekly and the Tennessee staff for the pitching plan, and the Lady Vols’ bats came through, so it’s not like White’s gaffe was the only reason Texas lost the game.

But it’s still a surprise that one of the top softball programs in the nation wasn’t more prepared to face both pitchers, instead of just the ace.