SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – Annie Prince struck out 15 batters, Community’s offense exploded for 10 runs, and the Viqueens (34-8, 8-0) won the TSSAA Class 2A Softball State Championship on Saturday afternoon with a 10-1 win over Marion County (26-9, 4-2) at Shelbyville Central High School.

“I can’t even put into words what this means, really,” Community Viqueens’ Head Coach Cam Farrell said postgame. “I’m kind of numb right now. I’m just proud of the girls. We’ve been getting after it since August, and they’ve worked so hard. They dealt with everything, just played ball, and got after it. I’m impressed with them and pleased for them because it ain’t easy. What’s hitting me right now is that it’s a hard road. Anybody that gets to this point and wins it all, they definitely deserve that respect because it’s a lot to get through.”

With the win, the Viqueens’ softball program secures its first-ever State Championship since it began in the mid-1980’s. More recently, Community was playing in its third State Tournament in four seasons, but this time, the Purple & Gold left with the gold trophy. 

Community finished as the District 9-AA Runners-Up to Summertown after finishing the regular season unbeaten in district play. The Viqueens exacted revenge on the Lady Eagles in the Region 5-AA Championship game at Summertown as part of what turned into a seven-game winning streak to close the season.

In the seventh and final win of that streak, the Viqueens ran away from Marion County, who had defeated Summertown in Friday’s semifinal. Annie Prince ended her career with her best run of games in perhaps her entire time at Community, starting and pitching four complete games while giving up just a single earned run in 28.0 innings and striking out a mind-blowing 54 batters in the process, including 15 in back-to-back games to close out her career with the Viqueens.

“She [Annie Prince] doesn’t stop working,” Farrell said, “She pitched every game we played this week, she had double-digit strikeouts in every game we played, I mean, Annie is Annie. Chat State is getting an absolute gem. And I’ll tell you another thing, Annie has taught me what I need to do for these other pitchers to be great. She works every single day. She’ll take breaks on Sundays, but it’s every single day, and her parents don’t make excuses for her. She called her own pitches this game again, and that right there lets you know what kind of kid she is and what kind of athlete she is. Also, how much trust she has earned because I’m not that coach. I’m always calling pitches, but that’s how much I trust her and it’s because of her work ethic.”

Prince prefers to call her own pitches, and she called them extremely effectively against the Lady Warriors.

“I can see where a hitter is at in the box – whether they are on the plate or if they’re not – and sometimes my coach can’t see where they are at as well,” Prince explained, “I just feel like I’m in control of the game and it’s better.”

The Viqueens senior ace didn’t just pitch brilliantly – she did so while also accomplishing the ultimate goal of winning a state championship.

“This means a lot. I’ve always wanted to get this far, and it just means a lot to win it,” Prince said postgame, “They weren’t swinging at the riseball, and I couldn’t get the riseball call, so I had to throw a bunch of curveballs and a bunch of screwballs and a bunch of dropballs and changeups. I can throw them all, they just aren’t my pitch, but it worked out.”

Prince finished her high school career with a line of 7.0 innings pitched, one earned run on six hits and four walks, and 15 strikeouts.

Marion County did find a way to score a two-out run in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a bloop single leading to an RBI-single from Lily Nixon, but that lead did not last for very long.

In the top of the second, the Viqueens put together a crooked number, batting around and plating six runs in the process to take a commanding 6-1 lead that they never looked back from. It started with a Prince leadoff-single, and then with one out, Alana Tate laid down a perfectly placed bunt-single on the first-base line that she was able to hustle out. Then, Hayden Moore’s bunt prompted a throwing error by the pitcher, Bryann Thomasson, that allowed the first two runs to score as well as Moore getting around to third base with just one out.

Anna Haskins kept the rally going with an RBI-single into left field, Kamryn Farrell was hit by a pitch, and then Gracie Daniel smacked an RBI single into left field to give the Viqueens a 4-0 lead. With Farrell on third, Haylee Webb – the hero of the District 9-AA Tournament – came through with a 2-RBI double into the left-center field gap to grow the advantage to 6-1 heading into the home half.

“The girls that came before them, they kind of showed these girls what they needed to do,” Farrell said about his offense, “Carlie Blanton and Taylor Wessner last year, those girls kind of paved the way and showed us what we need to do. We got to the state last year, and of course we had it rough with Liberty Creek and Alcoa, but those girls weathered that storm. Then, this team had the mindset of we've been there and we’ve seen it all so let’s take care of business.”

With Prince in the circle, she began to hit her spots, striking out two of the first three batters en route to a scoreless second inning. Then, in the top of the third, Kailani Allen launched her fourth home run of the season over the right-center field wall to extend the lead to 7-1.

Neither team scored again until the top of the sixth when Community found three more insurance runs for its ace. Haskins led off with an infield single before Daniel drove her home on an RBI-double. Daniel took third base on a passed ball which allowed Mattie Maxey’s groundout to score Daniel from third for the Viqueens eighth run of the contest. Webb followed that up with another double, and she came home to score after an errant throw from the catcher, Lily Nixon, sailed into left field for a 10-1 lead with just six outs remaining.

Marion County managed to work two runners on with nobody out in hopes of one final push, but Prince struck out the next three batters to end the threat and strand the runners. In the seventh, Prince struck out two of the three batters following a leadoff single from Albany Harris to secure the win, including a game-ending strikeout of Emma McCallie that prompted the dogpile celebration in the circle.

“They just all want to win,” said Farrell, “You can coach kids that are just here to get a uniform and hang out a little bit or you can coach kids that want to win, and they wanted to win so badly. When you get a group of kids that want to win, you don’t have to do much, and those kids wanted to win more than they wanted to do anything else. They also get along. They may not always tolerate each other, but if one of ‘em was broke down or needed to be taken care of, they were there to take care of each other.”

At the plate for Community, Haskins led off going 2-for-4, Daniel went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, and Maxey finished 1-for-4 with an RBI. Webb was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double, Prince went 1-for-4, Kailani Allen was 1-for-4 with a home run, and Alana Tate finished 2-for-4.

For Marion County, Bryanna Thomasson lasted 2.2 total innings in the circle, coming back to pitch the seventh after being relieved and moving to first base in the second inning. Thomasson gave up six runs – two earned – on six hits with one strikeout. Emma McCallie came on in relief, giving up four earned runs on six hits and one home run in 4.1 innings.

At the plate for the Warriors, Albany Harris went 1-for-3 with a walk, Brylee Thomasson was 1-for-3 with a walk, McCallie was 2-for-4, and Lily Nixon finished  2-for-3 with an RBI.

Throughout the entire season, the Viqueens worked through not just a tough district slate with Summertown, Chapel Hill, and Cascade, but they also took their lumps in a brutal out-of-district schedule that included a trip down to Gulf Shores to play against other successful schools earlier in the year.

“That schedule was everything,” Farrell said, “If we didn’t have the schedule that we did, there’s no way we could finish and face a pitcher like the one even at Unicoi earlier this week. The thing is, even when we went to Alabama and played, we faced great pitching down there, we faced great hitting down there, and we learned kind of how to survive it. We were able to learn what it takes when you face a team with nine hitters from top to bottom in the lineup. When you go through that, and every game is a battle and war, and you’re not worried about how pretty does my record look on the front end, then we get to this point and it’s like, take care of business because we’ve already seen it all.”

For the seven seniors – Alana Clark, Kailani Allen, Anna Haskins, Haylee Webb, Alana Tate, Kenzie Tucker, and Annie Prince – their careers come to an end with 109 wins over four years. Those wins include three trips to the state tournament as well as this year's state title, and they leave behind the highest possible standard for the program.

Community finishes 2026 with a 34-8 record overall. The Viqueens go down in the record book as District 9-AA Runners-Up, Region 5-AA Champions, and TSSAA Class 2A State Champions.