FMS standouts claim national title on travel circuit
The Lady Admirals are coming off a memorable year, having won the Tennessee Middle School State Championship in October, finishing with an impressive 19-3-1 record.
Now, FMS will look to go back-to-back, and it will have plenty of help from four players who return to the diamond with plenty of hardware.
Lady Admirals Lydia Lane, Anna Bell, Josie Pacelli and Logan Shrader competed in the 2026 USSSA national championship tournament in Gulf Shores the third week in July. Facing a 10-game gauntlet against teams from Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma, their team (High Standard 2013 - Partida) emerged with the national title, defeating OK Commit out of the Sooner state by a score of 4-1 in a winner-take-all matchup.
Before that, the Tennessee-based team won 9-6 to force the final matchup.
“It was just really fun, and all our hard work paid off,” said Bell, the team’s first baseman. “To win a national championship, it was such a good way to end the season, especially doing it with the Farragut teammates I’ve gotten close to and bonded with. We’ve gotten to know each other really well, and we are really good friends off the field.”
“It was just a really special moment between all of us,” Lane added. “I feel like we’ve all bonded and have each other’s backs.”
While Bell occupied the right corner of the diamond, Pacelli played catcher and third base with Lane at pitcher and first base and Shrader at shortstop.
As a team, they totaled a .402 average with a .500 on-base percentage in 184 total at-bats. They also fielded at an impressive .931 clip and gave up only nine earned runs across 10 games with a 1.385 ERA and 41 total strikeouts.
Lane went 2-0 in the circle, registering a .667 ERA with one earned run, eight strikeouts and two key RBIs throughout the tournament.
Pacelli put together a .375 batting average with 11 RBIs, 24 put-outs from behind the plate and a .966 overall fielding percentage while Bell totaled a .955 fielding percentage with 21 put-outs at first, one double play and a .500 batting average and 1.250 clip in on-base plus slugging in championship games.
Finally, Shrader hammered out a .333 batting average, a .940 OPS with eight runs scored, six stolen bases and an unassisted double play, earning Defensive MVP for the tournament in the process.
“It builds on what we did last year, winning the fall state tournament with that roster,” Green said of the group’s success. “And they all play different positions, too. Lydia throws pretty hard and had a pretty good year last year in middle school, so hopefully she can build on that and become a pretty dominant pitcher. Anna hits the ball pretty well and plays first and third, and Josie catches, plays third and had some pretty good at-bats for them over the tournament. And Logan Shrader, the younger one, is pretty good, too. Extremely athletic, the fifth of the Shraders. We had two of them this year in Alexa and Camryn, and Logan is probably more athletic than they are. Now she may not be as good offensively as Camryn at this point, but defensively, she’s pretty darn good.”
Moreover, he noted this experience will only aid each player once they reach high school, as they already have developed chemistry on the field.
“There’s a limit because you can only have five kids from the same school on the same club team, but it’s good they get to play together, as long as they don’t get sick of each other,” he joked. “Hope they take the things I’ve taught them and apply them to their other teams. I tell them there’s more than on eBay to do anything, so just because this is what we’re running, it doesn’t mean it’s the right way or the wrong way. But you have to be versatile and be able to run different systems. We’re pretty consistent with our roster so we run the same system from middle school through high school, and I think it benefits them to be able to run the same one all the time. They just have to take the skills that are transferrable from one system to another. Them playing at that level together early in their careers will only help as they get older because if we go to the state tournament, then they’ve already played in big games and been successful in them. So that helps a lot.”
