How summerball used to be covered

[Indian]

I found this pretty much by accident, and was surprised to see it was still online. I wish the games were still covered in as much detail, this was just a normal summer tournament, not even a state or national.

 

This story appeared in The Times on Monday, June 22, 1998.

 

 

Willmon's pitching, Brockman's

homer lifts Mustangs

 

By Kelley Smiddie

The Chattanooga Times

 

The way Danielle Willmon was pitching in the 18-under A-division final

of the NSA Riverbend NIT fastpitch softball tournament, she didn't

need much offensive support -- and that's exactly what she got.

 

The Chattanooga Mustangs were limited to three hits, but one was a

home run by Laura Brockman which provided a 1-0 victory over the

Columbia Storm.

 

Each A-division team that played in a final at Warner Park on Sunday

afternoon qualified for a berth in the NSA World Tournament in Jupiter,

Fla. later this summer.

 

Brockman's hit came with one out in the second inning and Willmon

took care of the rest, finishing the six-inning game with a one-hitter with

two walks. The right-hander struck out the first five and totaled 11

strikeouts.

 

"I was trying to focus hard on throwing strikes and went out there and

got the job done," Willmon said. "Our defense was almost flawless this

weekend. I'm glad they play behind me and not somebody else."

 

In all, Mustang pitchers gave up seven hits and two runs in five games.

Brockman and Stacey Richardson each homered twice during the

tournament.

 

16-Under A: The title game was scoreless through five innings, then

the Chattanooga Eagles scored twice each in the final two and came

away with a 4-1 victory over the Chattanooga Mustangs.

 

An error with the bases loaded and two out allowed the two runs to

score in the sixth.

 

The Mustangs got one back in the bottom of the inning when Samantha

Lovelady doubled, moved up on a sacrifice and scored on Lindsey

Morgan's single.

 

Run-scoring singles by Liz Bass and Amanda Smith in the seventh

provided insurance for Crystal Brewer. She pitched a six-hitter with no

walks and three strikeouts.

 

"We played good enough to win," Eagles coach Chris Williams said.

"We played excellent defense and our pitching was good. When your

hitting is not quite on, and ours wasn't quite on, that's what you've got to

have to win ballgames.

 

"We're a defensive team and have been since day one. We depend on

timely hits and we got enough of them this weekend to win it."

 

14-Under A: The Chattanooga Stars' Kelly Swafford came on in relief

in the third inning and preserved a 3-2 victory over the Energizers in the

championship game.

 

Ashleigh Bull's one-out RBI single and Casey McClain's two-out,

two-run double made it 3-0 in the second inning.

 

The Energizers cut the lead when Jennifer Reed and Katherine Card hit

back-to-back doubles in front of Mousey Davis' single. Enter Swafford,

who pitched shutout ball the rest of the way.

 

Swafford teamed with Katie Dyer on a four-hitter in the six-inning game.

Each walked two and Dyer struck out one.

 

Sarah Harris went 2 for 2 in the victory.

 

12-Under A: Katie Speiser's six-inning no-hitter sparked the

Chattanooga Eagles to a 9-0 victory over the Knoxville Thunder in the

final.

 

The Eagles broke it open late when they scored eight runs in the final

inning. The key hits were Alyson Elliott's two-run triple and Laura

Brown's two-run double. Elliott finished 2 for 3 and Brown and Alyson

Hood 2 for 4 each.

 

The only runner allowed by Speiser came on a one-out walk in the fifth

inning. She struck out four.

 

10-Under A: The Nashville Nighthawks edged the Chattanooga

Sonics, 10-9, for the championship.

 

Angie Longeberger, who had hit a three-run homer in the first inning,

singled in the winning run in the bottom of the fourth and final inning.

 

The Sonics had rallied and tied it with nine runs in the top of the fourth.

Savannah Helton was 2 for 3 for the Sonics with each hit driving in a

run that inning.

[BIGDOG31]

I believe if you could check you would find that the Chattanooga Free Press had an article the same day by Stump Martin and had a good bit of detail as well. Since the merger of the two Chattanooga papers, the coverage of local sports is almost non-existant. Kelly Smiddie does a good job covering softball but the paper obviously does not put an emphasis on any local sports except Baylor/McCallie at anything. If you are not a fan of those two, forget about it in Chattanooga...the dog howls......

[ERA]

I would like to ask the question of the media newspapers "Did your coverage wane because of the lack of fan interest or was it for your lack of interest?" My bet is possibly both. Hyping ball games is tantamount to fan participation. When a newspaper decides to drop their interest, the fan interest is directly proportional most of the time. This game is more entertaining than most sports but most people have not had the pleasure of experiencing it with the pomp and circumstance it deserves. Coffee County has been blessed with a lot of local hype and fan participation. The newspapers have been great (Manchester Times, Tullahoma News) to the point that probably surpasses any benchmark set by any other town, especially for its size.

 

All things in this business are cyclical and softball is not impervious. Lest we forget, UT has been the hands down dominator of press. The Titans come to town and UT football took a hit on "Inches" in the papers. Yet, the fan base has dwindled for both with less than average seasons at this point.

 

Simply put, we are vying for press against the pro and college teams. There are only so many inches allowed for sports coverage as a whole and frankly, high school press in the papers will take a back seat to the "Money Laden" pro and college teams. You'll have better coverage with small town newspapers than the larger "Corporate backed" papers. Advertisers want the most bang for their buck. It's a "NO BRAINER" to cover the big dogs and get the big advertising dollar.

 

One more thing. Mike Mcgee single handedly brought softball to its pinnacle of success with his coverage of softball in the "Sports Leader" until two years ago in Coffee County. It was softball coverage at its best. We miss Mike greatly. There isn't a newspaper in this state that did for softball what Mike Mcgee did during his Sports Leader run. If anyone is looking for a great softball sportswriter, Mike Mcgee would top the list for girls softball period.

[Edited by ERA on 10-23-02 4:51P]

 

[piratedad]

the papers here in chattanooga could care less about summer ball anymore there used to be a section called stars and scores were each leauge in town was coverd with a breif synopsis of each game and who did what in it the free press is a RAG not worthy to line my bird cage(ecspecially that yellow jounalisim just reprinted} why is it i cant remember that game? mountian money runs the paper

 

be the bunny

[BIGDOG31]

You don't remember the game because of the score. It was the NSA riverbend at Warner Park(14U). That's the same year that the Stars won the NSA State in Chattanooga and then the Ener(Star)gizers won the ASA State in Nashville, remember the look on Bo's face when the bunnies (old and new) showed up at the park. Then the bunnies went to Oklahoma for the Nationals. You are right about those being some great times and lots of fun even with the competition. And since there is no competition in the Chattanooga newspaper world, they don't have to cover local sports because there is only one paper to buy. The merger definitely hurt local coverage in Chattanooga, but there are plenty of Incline tickets left. Go to every game you can this spring, I am. See you at the park..the dog howls....

[mikemcgee]

Posted by Indian:

I found this pretty much by accident, and was surprised to see it was still online. I wish the games were still covered in as much detail, this was just a normal summer tournament, not even a state or national.

 

This story appeared in The Times on Monday, June 22, 1998.

 

 

Willmon's pitching, Brockman's

homer lifts Mustangs

 

By Kelley Smiddie

The Chattanooga Times

 

The way Danielle Willmon was pitching in the 18-under A-division final

of the NSA Riverbend NIT fastpitch softball tournament, she didn't

need much offensive support -- and that's exactly what she got.

 

The Chattanooga Mustangs were limited to three hits, but one was a

home run by Laura Brockman which provided a 1-0 victory over the

Columbia Storm.

 

Each A-division team that played in a final at Warner Park on Sunday

afternoon qualified for a berth in the NSA World Tournament in Jupiter,

Fla. later this summer.

 

Brockman's hit came with one out in the second inning and Willmon

took care of the rest, finishing the six-inning game with a one-hitter with

two walks. The right-hander struck out the first five and totaled 11

strikeouts.

 

"I was trying to focus hard on throwing strikes and went out there and

got the job done," Willmon said. "Our defense was almost flawless this

weekend. I'm glad they play behind me and not somebody else."

 

In all, Mustang pitchers gave up seven hits and two runs in five games.

Brockman and Stacey Richardson each homered twice during the

tournament.

 

16-Under A: The title game was scoreless through five innings, then

the Chattanooga Eagles scored twice each in the final two and came

away with a 4-1 victory over the Chattanooga Mustangs.

 

An error with the bases loaded and two out allowed the two runs to

score in the sixth.

 

The Mustangs got one back in the bottom of the inning when Samantha

Lovelady doubled, moved up on a sacrifice and scored on Lindsey

Morgan's single.

 

Run-scoring singles by Liz Bass and Amanda Smith in the seventh

provided insurance for Crystal Brewer. She pitched a six-hitter with no

walks and three strikeouts.

 

"We played good enough to win," Eagles coach Chris Williams said.

"We played excellent defense and our pitching was good. When your

hitting is not quite on, and ours wasn't quite on, that's what you've got to

have to win ballgames.

 

"We're a defensive team and have been since day one. We depend on

timely hits and we got enough of them this weekend to win it."

 

14-Under A: The Chattanooga Stars' Kelly Swafford came on in relief

in the third inning and preserved a 3-2 victory over the Energizers in the

championship game.

 

Ashleigh Bull's one-out RBI single and Casey McClain's two-out,

two-run double made it 3-0 in the second inning.

 

The Energizers cut the lead when Jennifer Reed and Katherine Card hit

back-to-back doubles in front of Mousey Davis' single. Enter Swafford,

who pitched shutout ball the rest of the way.

 

Swafford teamed with Katie Dyer on a four-hitter in the six-inning game.

Each walked two and Dyer struck out one.

 

Sarah Harris went 2 for 2 in the victory.

 

12-Under A: Katie Speiser's six-inning no-hitter sparked the

Chattanooga Eagles to a 9-0 victory over the Knoxville Thunder in the

final.

 

The Eagles broke it open late when they scored eight runs in the final

inning. The key hits were Alyson Elliott's two-run triple and Laura

Brown's two-run double. Elliott finished 2 for 3 and Brown and Alyson

Hood 2 for 4 each.

 

The only runner allowed by Speiser came on a one-out walk in the fifth

inning. She struck out four.

 

10-Under A: The Nashville Nighthawks edged the Chattanooga

Sonics, 10-9, for the championship.

 

Angie Longeberger, who had hit a three-run homer in the first inning,

singled in the winning run in the bottom of the fourth and final inning.

 

The Sonics had rallied and tied it with nine runs in the top of the fourth.

Savannah Helton was 2 for 3 for the Sonics with each hit driving in a

run that inning.

 

I recognize every name in the Stars-Energizer game except Katie Dyer. Anyone know if she's still playing anywhere? She had to be pretty good to even play on one of those teams based on the names I saw listed.

[supersteve17]

Posted by mikemcgee:

Posted by Indian:

I found this pretty much by accident, and was surprised to see it was still online. I wish the games were still covered in as much detail, this was just a normal summer tournament...

I recognize every name in the Stars-Energizer game except Katie Dyer. Anyone know if she's still playing anywhere? She had to be pretty good to even play on one of those teams based on the names I saw listed.

 

Katie played at Baylor and had a very good high school career. I think she had a serious leg injury that restricted her mobility, but she could flat out hit. I think she is in her freshman year at Samford (Birmingham) where she is playing softball.

[BIGDOG31]

Katie played for the Stars from 1998-2001 and the Energizers before that and the Thunder before that. She played 3rd base and pitched some but had shoulder problems and DH'd some. She was and is one of the best hitters ever.She usually batted 4th and sometimes 3rd. If you ever saw the Stars, she was the one hitting the line drives all over the place. Check the private school all-state team this year and you'll see her there as a DH for Baylor. Check Samford's website and you'll find her there as a freshman member of their softball team along with former Star and Baylor School teammate Kelly Smith...the dog howls again....

[piratedad]

TEXACO FRIED CHICKEN......i just like the livers