Game Changer

Annie Smith is no stranger to the NCAA softball tournament.

As an assistant coach at the University of Missouri and later at Mississippi State, Smith made it to regionals nine times.

So, when she came to Georgia Southern after accepting her first head coaching position on August 22, 2011, she was ready to go back to the big tournament. The Eagles (42-20 in 2012) dominated the Southern Conference (SoCon), finishing the regular season with a 22-2 record in conference play, clinching the program’s first regular-season conference championship since 1996 and winning the SoCon tournament for the first time since 2006.

The tournament title earned the Eagles a bid to face off with Georgia, the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Coastal Carolina in the Athens, Ga., regional of the 2012 NCAA tournament.

“From the beginning, we just took things one game at a time,” said Smith, who was one of only two first-year, Division-I head coaches to earn a bid to the tournament. “When I got here, I think we worried too much about the Southern Conference Championship, instead of taking things one game at a time, so I just focused on that – trying to keep things simple. I knew we had good players, so we just focused on conditioning and playing the game the right way.”

The season came to an end in Athens at the hands of the UNC in extra innings and CCU at the double-elimination regional, but the Eagles reached new heights throughout the regular season.

A confidence boost early in the season may have given the Eagles all the momentum they needed to plow ahead to the 2012 SoCon crown. Playing host to the Kentucky Wildcats at the 2012 Eagle Classic on Feb. 25, the Eagles fought through extra innings to secure a 2-1 win over the Southeastern Conference (SEC) foe.

“I knew we could beat them,” said Smith, who is no stranger to SEC competition. “My friends at Mississippi State said, ‘They’ll get intimidated by the Kentucky jersey.’ I’m not used to that. I wasn’t intimidated, and I think that helped. When we came back and won that game, I think we started to realize that we could be really good.”

The momentum took the Eagles into the end of March, when they played host to SoCon powerhouse Chattanooga. The Mocs lost two in the three-game set, giving Georgia Southern its first series win over Chattanooga since the 2008 season.

Despite record-setting offensive numbers, Smith attributes the team’s consistency to its stable of pitchers – Sarah Purvis, Allie Miles, Brooke Red and Marla Thompson – which put together a team earned-run average of 1.68 and allowed opponents to bat just .194.

“You can’t win with one pitcher,” said Smith. “I was fortunate that we have a staff, and that’s really why we were able to win the SoCon tournament. The game’s won in the circle.”

Purvis was named SoCon Pitcher of the Year and first-team, All-Southern Conference, and Red was named to the All-Freshman conference team.
Smith was honored with the SoCon’s Coach of the Year award. Despite the fact that it was her first season as a head coach, Smith chalks up the success to experience.

“I’ve just been around a long time, and I’ve been in a lot of games,” Smith said about her 15 years as an assistant in the Big 12 and SEC conferences. “It helps facing all those teams. I’m pretty consistent. I don’t get nervous and I don’t get worked up, and the players see that.”

Now entering her first full recruiting season, Smith expects to once again reach the bar set by the 2012 Eagles.

“The key is to not live in the past,” she said. “We talked about it in the meetings at the end of the season, ‘What’s done is done. Now what are we going to do?’ Losing two at the regional helps them to know what they need to do now, and where they want to be.”

Just as long as the Eagles don’t look too far ahead.

“Repeating would be nice,” Smith added. “But, like I said, one game at a time.”