As back-to-school ads start to appear, it’s a good time to remember it’s still summer and baseball season.

The Knoxville Smokies will emerge from the All-Star break with back-to-back road series and then return home for six games starting July 28 that feature two of the best promotions of the season.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer has returned to Covenant Health Park for the “Paint the Park Pink” game on Friday, July 31, thanks to a sponsorship by Erie Insurance. Survivors and those still affected by breast cancer will be honored on the field before the game, and fans and players will have the opportunity to recognize loved ones during an in-game ceremony and a moment of silence. The Smokies players will wear specialty pink jerseys that fans can bid on to take home. Since it’s Friday, the night will conclude with postgame fireworks.

On Saturday, Aug. 1 – also a postgame fireworks show – the Smokies will be the Knoxville Giants to honor a team that was one of the founding members of the Negro Southern League and its first champion over a century ago. The players will wear throwback uniforms of that era, and fans can bid on those jerseys to take home. The special game, presented by Ebony & Ivory, also will be the site of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center’s Eighth of August Jubilee, albeit a week early to accommodate the home game schedule.

The statues that appear around the stadium were placed with considerable guidance and input from the Beck Cultural Exchange Center as historical reminders of early professional baseball in Knoxville. A second set of statues was added last April to honor artist Beauford Delaney, teacher Ruth Cobb Brice, singer and “Queen of the Blues” Ida P. Cox and writer and poet Nikki Giovanni, all of whom had deep roots in Knoxville.

The Smokies will get back on the road after the homestand and then return for another six-game homestand Aug. 11-16 that features the always popular Tennessee Night on Aug. 15 with a DeSean Bishop bobblehead for the first 1,000 fans.

Tickets for Smokies home games are available HERE.

Summer is slipping away. Get to the ballpark.

KARLYN PICKENS

Karlyn Pickens’ first professional softball season will come to an end this month – the AUSL plays a 25-game season that concludes July 20 – and the rookie has established herself, especially after snapping a bat on July 11.

In the same inning, Pickens set the AUSL single-season strikeout record with 53 to break Rachel Garcia’s tally of 52 set in 2025. However, Montana Fouts, who pitches for the Utah Talons, recorded strikeout No. 53 the following day on July 12 for a tie.

Pickens, who plays for the Carolina Blaze, and Garcia, who plays for the Texas Volts, also has 52 in 2026, so the three will battle it out to come out on top this season.

GOLF

In a much-deserved move, Diana Cantú’s contract as head coach for Lady Vols golf has been extended through the 2030-31 season.

“The transformation of our women’s golf program under Diana’s leadership has been extraordinary, highlighted by our first SEC championship last spring,” Athletics Director Danny White said. “She has elevated our program to national prominence, and we are excited to continue pursuing championships on Rocky Top!”

Cantú, an outstanding golfer for the Lady Vols from 2006-10, took the helm as head coach in 2021 and guided the Lady Vols to their first conference title in program history in 2026, a second consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships and a program record four tournament victories.

Coach Diana Cantú (Tennessee Athletics)

Madison Messimer became Tennessee’s first SEC Freshman of the Year since 2003 and the program’s first All-SEC First Team selection since 2016. Kyra Van Kan earned All-SEC Second Team honors, marking the Lady Vols’ first season with multiple all-conference honorees since 2015.

The first two All-Americans of the Cantú era, Messimer and Van Kan are the first Lady Vols to earn All-American recognition since 2016.

“I am incredibly grateful to the University of Tennessee for its continued trust and support of our women’s golf program,” Cantú said. “Tennessee is a special place, and it is an honor to work with such outstanding student-athletes, coaches and staff. Not to mention the best fans in the country!

“I am excited to continue building on the foundation we’ve established, competing at the highest level and helping our student-athletes succeed both on the course and in the classroom.”

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Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition was released June 16, 2026. A third book, “The Legacy of Pat Summitt” will be released Nov. 17, 2026.