Team Tennessee 29

Team Tennessee | Winning Words Wednesday

At some point, it has to become yours.

Your parents can pay for lessons, buy the equipment, drive you to practices, spend weekends at ball fields, and sacrifice time and money to give you opportunities.

That sacrifice creates a responsibility.

Your responsibility is to work, listen, compete.

To make the most of the opportunities you’ve been given.

Luke 12:48 says:

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.”

If people are sacrificing to help you chase your goals, honor that sacrifice with your effort.

Want more, Work more, Compete harder.

And when your opportunity comes, be ready for it.

You’ve been given much. Make sure you’re giving something back.

Your leaderboard from Saturday at Lee University 🔥

Team Tennessee 29 Hits All Day, Comes Home 0-2-1

Lee University Showcase | Cleveland, Tennessee | August 29, 2026

Three games, twenty five hits, twenty runs, and not a win to show for it.

Team Tennessee 29 Smith 16U hit .368 as a team Saturday at Lee University and walked off the complex with a tie and two losses. The first year 16U tied Athletics Mercado Foster 16U 10-10, fell 13-4 to Wildcats 28/29, and dropped a 13-6 decision to Team TN Ellison 28/29 18U after once leading by four.

Every girl on the roster hit. Every girl on the roster played the field. That was the plan going in, and it matters when you look at the day as a whole.

Game 1: Athletics Mercado Foster 16U, 10-10

Karley Smith singled home a run in the bottom of the first and Aubree Goff followed with a two run ground out for a 3-1 lead. Athletics answered with five in the second, and from there it was a fight.

Down 7-4, Team Tennessee kept coming. An Athletics error and an Alexzandra Smith ground out put Tennessee back in front 8-7 in the fourth. Athletics answered again and carried a 10-8 lead into the bottom of the fifth.

Then came a ball driven all the way to the fence brought both tying runs around. The throw actually beat the last runner to the plate, but it got away from the catcher and the run scored.

10-10.

Eleven hits, with two apiece from Cydney Champion and Amelia Williams.

Game 2: Wildcats 28/29, 13-4

Six runs in the top of the first, capped by a bases clearing triple, put Team Tennessee in a hole before the offense ever got settled.

The bats kept working anyway.

Karley Smith, Isabella Dixon, Amya Brown, Amelia Williams, Shayler Becker and Anslee Douglas all collected hits. Brown stole two bases.

The offense competed.

The first inning was too much.

Game 3: Team TN Ellison 28/29 18U, 13-6

Then came the clearest look yet at what this team can become.

Five runs. Six hits. One inning.

Team Tennessee turned a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the first, and for that inning there was no question whether this club belonged on the field.

Ellison answered with five in the second and added six more in the fifth to pull away.

Alexzandra Smith stole four bases.

Eight hits from eight different players.

Again, the offense was there.

The Truth

This team can hit.

Twenty five hits, twenty runs, a .368 average, a .434 on base percentage, an 85 percent contact rate, and eleven stolen bases in eleven attempts.

Anslee Douglas doubled and tripled.

Amelia Williams went 4 for 7.

Karley Smith went 3 for 5.

Shayler Becker and Cydney Champion both hit .500.

There were flashes in the circle.

Isabella Dixon worked 5.1 innings with four strikeouts and zero walks.

That is a pitcher trusting what she has and making hitters earn their way on.

There were flashes in the field.

The throws were steady all day. Infield, outfield, everywhere. Nobody rushed one and nobody airmailed one.

And then there is the other side of it.

Thirty six runs on thirty seven hits in sixteen innings.

Eight walks and four wild pitches.

Opponents hit .420.

The official book shows three errors.

That does not mean the defense played clean. Balls dropped between second and the outfield.Balls dropped between short and the outfield.

More than once.

Those go in the book as base hits, but we know the we have to get a glove to these bslls. Communication has to improve in this area.

The ball comes off the bat harder at this level. That is not an excuse it’s just the reason we have to hit harder at practice, to get these gloves fast, that is the standard.

The reads get quicker.

The communication comes earlier.

The glove gets there.

The Choice coach Made

Ten of thirteen girls played more than one position Saturday.

Everyone hit.

Everyone played.

Everyone had a chance to be seen by the college coaches sitting around that complex.

That was intentional.

At an exposure event, getting players on the field matters. Development matters. Being seen matters.but is also a tradeoff, and i absolutely own it.

You do not build defensive rhythm by moving people around all afternoon.

There is a version of this team where nine girls settle into their best spots, build communication with the players beside them, and get comfortable making those plays together.

Saturday was about exposure and evaluation. As the season goes on, the balance between exposure, development and winning gets clearer.

What Is Next

Right now the bats are ahead of the gloves and the circle.

So that is where the work goes.

Hard hit balls.

Gap communication.

First steps.

Calling the ball early and loud.

Pitchers getting ahead.

First pitch strikes.

Getting the leadoff hitter out.

And learning how to keep one bad play from turning into a six run inning.

Because here is the takeaway from Saturday.

This team was one inning away in two of these three games.

Not one talent level away.

One inning.

That is the whole difference.

This is a first year 16U team with a ton of talent. Now it becomes a 16U team that knows how to finish.

Sixty feet at a time.

One pitch at a time.

One inning at a time.

The only people not messing it up are the people not doing it.

🍊 TEAM TENNESSEE 29

SHOWCASE SATURDAY!

Team Tennessee Smith is headed to the Lee University Showcase with a BIG opportunity to showcase our talent in front of D2 college coaches! 🔥

Three games. Three opportunities to compete, make an impression, and show what Team Tennessee is all about.

📍 Lee University | Butler Softball Field
1855 Parker Street NE | Cleveland, TN

🕚 11:00 AM vs. Athletics Mercado
🕔 5:00 PM vs. Wildcats 28/29
🕖 7:00 PM vs. Team Tennessee Ellison

Trust the work. Compete every pitch. Play for each other.

🧡💙 ALL GAS. NO BRAKES. 💨

Team Tennessee | Winning Words Wednesday

“I’m tired.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I can’t.”

Girls, those words are usually not about what your body can do.

They are about what your mind is willing to do.

At 15 years old, you are old enough to start deciding what kind of person you want to become.

Because life is not always going to care if you are tired.

The game is not always going to care if you do not feel like it.

Your teammates are still counting on you.

Your goals are still waiting on you.

And the girl who wants your spot probably is not taking the day off because you are tired.

Sometimes “I can’t” really means “I do not want to be uncomfortable.”

That is a problem.

Because growth is uncomfortable.

Getting stronger is uncomfortable.

Being coached is uncomfortable.

Failing is uncomfortable.

Doing one more rep when you want to quit is uncomfortable.

But that is where you find out what you are made of.

Philippians 4:13 says,

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

That does not mean everything will be easy.

It means hard is not an excuse to quit.

So when your mind says stop, ask yourself one question.

Am I really unable to do this, or am I just used to getting my way?

Do the rep.

Run the sprint.

Take the swing.

Finish the drill.

Be coachable.

Be dependable.

Be tougher than the excuse in your head.

Because one day softball will be over, and life is going to ask the same thing from you.

Can you keep going when you are tired, frustrated, uncomfortable, and not getting your way?

That is bigger than softball.

That is character.

Amelia Williams spent yesterday at Clemson softball camp.

Getting in front of a college staff and holding your own is not a small thing at her age. She did the work, she asked questions, and she wore our name well.

That is what recruiting is about, Go put yourself in the room.

Proud of you, Amelia.

Team Tennessee | Winning Words Wednesday

First tournament of the fall is in the books.

And in that first game, we got punched in the mouth.

It happened fast.

We made mistakes. They jumped on us early.

It would have been easy to fold right there.

We didn’t.

We settled down. We stood tall. And then we played some really good softball.

That is what I was proud of.

Not that everything went our way. It didn’t.

I was proud of how we answered when it didn’t.

And about those mistakes…

The only people not messing it up are the people not doing it.

James 1:2-4 tells us to count it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds, because the testing of our faith produces perseverance.

That is what adversity does.

It shows you who you are.

It shows you who will keep fighting.

It shows you who can get knocked back and still come forward again.

Getting hit is not the same as being beaten.

You only get beat when you decide you are done.

This weekend, our girls did not decide they were done.

They competed.

They adjusted.

They kept coming.

Now we build on it.

One good response is not the finish line.

It is the starting line.

Take what you learned.

Take the confidence.

Take the toughness.

Bring it to the next practice, the next workout, and the next game.

We still have a lot of work to do.

Good.

That means we still have a lot of room to grow.

Keep showing up.

Keep getting better.

One bad inning does not get to decide who we are.

Neither does one bad game.

We decide that by what we do next.

Weekend leaderboard 🏆🥎
DC Sandlot Classic

A look at some of our top stat performers from Saturday August 15th!
Proud of the way these girls competed all weekend long. 💪🔥 Keep putting in the work!

TEAM TENNESSEE 29 OPENS FALL SEASON WITH PLENTY TO BUILD ON

Team Tennessee 29 took the field Saturday for its first tournament of the fall season. There were some new faces in the dugout and a younger roster stepping into the 16U division, but the goal remained the same.

Get better. Compete. Win some games.

Over three games, this young group showed a little bit of everything.

GAME 1: THE RESPONSE

The day did not exactly start according to plan.

Against Heaters Fastpitch 18U, a few early mistakes helped the Heaters jump out to a 5 to 0 lead in the first inning.

Then Team Tennessee settled down.

And went to work.

They did not allow another run and began chipping away at the deficit. Shayler Becker drove in two, while Allie Moynihan, Alexzandra Smith, Maddie Harris and Becker each collected a hit.

What looked like it could get away from them turned into a ballgame.

Team Tennessee answered five early runs with four of its own. The comeback came up one run short, 5 to 4, but the response said a lot about this group.

GAME 2: A STATEMENT RESPONSE

There wasn’t much time to think about the loss.

Team Tennessee came right back against VA Surge and put together its most complete game of the day.

Amelia Williams and Amya Brown each collected two hits. Williams and Becker drove in two runs apiece, while Becker added two stolen bases.

Team Tennessee finished with 11 hits and eight runs.

But the biggest story was in the circle.

Isabella Dixon was nearly untouchable.

The 2030 right hander threw four complete innings without allowing a hit or a run. She struck out two, walked nobody and finished off a NO HITTER as Team Tennessee rolled to an 8 to 0 victory.

And the defense behind her was flawless.

Zero errors. Zero hits. Zero runs.

That’s about as complete as it gets.

GAME 3: ONE INNING CHANGES THE GAME

After a four and a half hour break, Team Tennessee returned to face Lady Grapes 18U.

For three innings, it was anybody’s game.

Lady Grapes scored first, but Team Tennessee answered when Becker put the ball in play and brought home the tying run.

It remained 1 to 1 heading into the fourth.

Then one inning changed everything.

Lady Grapes strung together four hits and five runs to break open what had been a tight game. Team Tennessee could not answer and fell 6 to 1.

Brown, Williams and Cydney Champion each recorded a hit, while Becker drove in Team Tennessee’s only run.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The final record says 1 and 2.

But Saturday showed more than the record.

Team Tennessee scored 13 runs, collected 18 hits and stole seven bases while hitting .367 as a team with a .456 on base percentage.

Amya Brown and Amelia Williams led the offense at .600. Williams scored a team high four runs, while Becker drove in five and stole two bases.

In the circle, Dixon finished with a 2.52 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 8.1 innings, highlighted by her four inning no hitter.

This is a young team playing up in the 16U division. New faces are learning to play together. New roles are being established. And there is plenty still to clean up.

But Saturday showed something that matters.

They got punched in the mouth in the first inning of the first game and didn’t fold.

They answered.

They came within one run of completing the comeback, then turned around and threw a no hitter in an 8 to 0 win.

Tournament number one is in the books.

There is work to do.

And there is plenty to build on.

🍊🥎 TEAM TENNESSEE 29