Add one more thing to the two certainties in life of death and taxes – Minor League Baseball season ends too soon.

The Knoxville Smokies have just two series left at home in the regular season with one in progress and ending this Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, against the Montgomery Biscuits and the second from September 2-7 against the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

One of the biggest games of the season is this Saturday, Aug. 23, with Tennessee Night that features the giveaway of a Dylan Sampson bobblehead to the first 2,000 fans and a Checker Covenant Health Park promotion. Gates open at 5:30 p.m., so arrive early and get in line to snare a bobblehead. Very few tickets are left online, so don’t wait to buy at the box office and check secondary sites, too.

The orange or white attire is sorted by section and can be viewed below and HERE. The Modelo Watering Hole – one of the most popular places in the park – has been assigned white.

As the Smokies said on social media: “Good ol’ Rocky Top, WOO!”

Tickets for the remaining games on the schedule are available HERE, and it includes one more half-price draft beers all game long on Thirsty Thursday, September 4, and Fan Appreciation Day on Sunday, September 7, with giveaways of memorabilia, including autographed baseballs and game worn jerseys.

SOCCER

Last week’s column covered Tennessee’s 2-0 defeat of No. 1 Carolina and can be read HERE. The Lady Vols followed that win with a 9-0 win over Eastern Kentucky and vaulted from not receiving votes in the top 25 polls to No. 5/6 and SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors for Shae O’Rourke, who booted both goals into the net against the Tar Heels, and SEC Defensive Player of the Week for goalkeeper Cayden Norris. North Carolina dropped to No. 8/14 in the polls.

“Really happy for our players that worked really, really hard to get to this point and excited to see those results early on,” head coach Joe Kirt said on “Coffee with the Coach” with Mike Keith, the new Voice of the Vols. “Now we’ve got to keep it going.”

Tennessee made a long trip for a matchup Wednesday night against No. 4/4 UCLA at Wallis Annenberg Stadium in Los Angeles and seized a 1-0 win to indeed keep it going. The Lady Vols had just one shot and made it count with a nifty move by O’Rourke. The Bruins had 17 shots with five on goal and Norris kept the net clear.

Against Eastern Kentucky last Sunday, Tennessee’s nine goals tied a program record last set against Arkansas State on Sept. 6, 2002, and the Lady Vols showed no signs of a letdown after the big win against North Carolina a few days earlier.

“We control what we do every day, and we talked about that going into that game, coming off a big win, what are we going to follow that up with?” Kirt said. “The team did a great job setting their standard and obviously scoring some goals and limiting opportunities for the opposition. That’s what we want to do every time we step on the field.”

After opening a 4-0 lead, Alivia Stott, a sophomore forward from Knoxville who played at Bearden High School, scored five goals in 20 minutes in the second half between the 65th and 85th minutes – the most ever scored in one half in program history and the shortest span in which a Tennessee player tallied five goals.

All five goals were assisted by a different teammate in Bella Smith, Sarah Kate Rath, Milee Zych, Dakota Brown and Abby Batts.

“She got a great service from her teammates,” Kirt said. “Similar to Shae, goal scorers find great spots to be, and then it’s taking their chances when they come. She’s been great every day. We’ve seen it for over a year. We’ve seen in high school, her ability to find really good positions in the box. She can finish with both feet. She can finish with her head. And she did it a lot on Sunday.”

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 will be released in 2026.