Nashville, Tenn. - Carson-Newman freshman third baseman Shannon Smith (Channahon, Ill.) has been named the Tennessee Sportswriters Association State Player of the Week, the organization announced Tuesday afternoon.

Smith batted .500 (7-for-14) with two doubles, two home runs, eight RBI and four runs scored in helping the Eagles to a 3-1 record at the Bearcat/Fleet Invitational last weekend. The Channahon, Ill., native singled and walked versus Young Harris and collected three hits with two doubles and two RBIs later the same day at Erskine.

Saturday proved to be the cherry on the sundae for Smith.  The freshman hit a grand slam against King University and recorded a solo homer with an RBI single and three runs scored at Lander University. The grand slam home run was the first such blast for an Eagle since Abby Fiessinger's grand slam against Tusculum on April 2, 2019. Her dinger against Lander was a lead-off bomb, the first home run to open a game for C-N since Fiessinger started off an April 22 win over Newberry with a bomb. 

Smith is batting .556 (10-for-18) with 10 RBI and six runs scored in six games this season. She ranks 25th nationally and second in the league in batting average. Her 1.000 slugging percentage is 15th nationally, while her 0.652 on-base percentage is second-highest in the SAC and 21st best in the country. 

The freshman is the Eagles' first TSWA Player of the Week since  Fiessinger won the award on April 8 last year.  She is the first Carson-Newman freshman recognized by the organization since Taylor Scott and Lacie Rinus were both recognized in March of 2017 during their freshman campaigns. 

Smith and the rest of the Eagles are in action Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Lee.