Vipers’ rollout
- Updated: June 23, 2023
Smash It Sports Vipers’ Women’s Professional Fastpitch softball team falls to Texas, but an estimated 600 bought tickets to see new Oxford team’s home opener
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Autumn Parsons’ trained softball eye took in everything from the Smash It Sports Vipers’ first home game since moving to Oxford.
The bottom-line part of it came with disappointment. The area’s first Women’s Professional Fastpitch team fell 6-2 to the Texas Smoke on Friday on Choccolocco Park’s signature field to reach 0-5 in the team’s first season in Oxford.
Like the estimated 600 people who bought tickets for the Vipers’ home opener, however, Parsons and her family came for the full-on softball experience, watching from the stands above the home dugout. The recent Wellborn High graduate and former Panthers’ All-Calhoun County player can relate.
“The behind the scenes, the warmups and just getting into the game and into the swing of it, you can tell from how they’re playing all of the hard work they’ve put in,” Parsons said. “As a softball player, there’s like that moment where, wow, you’re here.”
The crowd of 600 plus players’ family members fanned out in the main grandstand, both dugout-topping grandstands and the two recently added grandstands behind the sponsor-lined outfield fence.
They saw the home team take a 2-0 lead in the first inning, when Karly Heath hit an RBI single and Suzy Brookshire stole home.
They also saw the Smoke’s Jenae Jefferson tie it with a two-run home run in the fifth inning.
The WPF team from Austin, Texas, made visiting owner and former Atlanta Brave Brandon Phillips happy with four runs in the seventh. He watched from the front row of the main grandstand.
White Plains High softball player Kannon Slaughter and her family watched from an outfield grandstand, and Slaughter saw a team not discouraged despite a slow start to the season.
“I saw many great things,” she said. “There was high communication throughout the game, perseverance after an error and grit.
“It was also great to see that, even at the professional level, there are still errors, strikeouts and pop-ups.”
The game’s outcome didn’t shorten the 45-minute autograph line. Vipers’ players sat along a row of foldout tables and signed balls and other memorabilia for local youths.
Vipers’ general manager Don DeDonatis saw a positive rollout before the home crowd.
“The opening game today was great,” said DeDonatis, who did not make Vipers coach Gerry Glasco or players available for interviews after the game. It was successful. Everybody was engaged. The fans were here. They stayed every pitch to the end.
“They were enthused. They’re fans. They’re not just here to come to a game because of something new. I think we’ve got some real fans, and we’re going to build off of this, and it’s going to be a great year.”
In player news, the Vipers picked up their 17th player Friday with third baseman Kelsey Bennett, from Virginia Tech. They added former Ole Miss infielder Mikayla Allee while playing their road series against the Smoke earlier this week.
The Vipers continued to rest top draft pick Ashley Rogers. The standout who pitched Tennessee to the Women’s College World Series did not play Friday but participated in autographs.
“She’s had some conditioning,” DeDonatis said. “While we’re putting everything together and building a team … we’re resting her. She’ll probably come in sometime right after the first game in July or somewhere in there.”
Not expected to play this season is second-round draft pick Ally Shipman, the catcher from Alabama.
“Shipman is probably done,” DeDonatis said. “She’s got some torn tendons in her thumb, and she’s going to need a surgeon, so whether that heals up right now, but she probably won’t be playing this summer. I don’t know, though.”
DeDonatis said he has not received word on the status of former Alabama pitcher Montana Fouts’ knee injury. The Vipers drafted her in April.
Local fans got an eyeful of the Vipers who played Friday.
“It’s really neat,” Parsons said. “We haven’t had a softball team like this come to Oxford, and it’s really neat to see people play in our area professionally and to get to see all of the faces that we see on TV here, in Oxford, locally.”
Slaughter saw something aspirational.
“I think it’s really awesome to have a professional softball team here in Oxford,” she said. “It’s a special thing to have, especially for our younger athletes coming up. It gives them something to look up to and something to strive toward.
“I’m so excited to see what’s in store this season for the Vipers!”
Postgame autographs
Cover photo: The Smash It Sports Vipers and Texas Smoke, of the Women’s Professional Fastpitch softball league, stand for the National Anthem before Friday’s Vipers’ home opener at Choccolocco Park, in their first season in Oxford. (Photo by Joe Medley)
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