Mark WiedmerOne by one, launched from a tee, the softballs soared toward the East Lake Recreation Center's outfield fence, which stood 210 feet from home plate. Almost all traveled in a perfectly straight line, right over second base, as if shot from a machine instead of driven there with metal bats swung by 14-year-old Madison Hayes, 12-year-old Cadashia Collins and 8-year-old Jamiah Lewis.
"They're not just going to Turner Field to compete," said Butch Leftwich, a 39-year veteran of Chattanooga's Parks and Recreation Department, under Thursday afternoon's searing sun. "They want to win. It's pretty hot out here, and they haven't complained once. They're hard workers."
Hayes, Collins and Lewis were scheduled to leave at 5:30 this morning for the home of the Atlanta Braves to see if all that hard work can win one, two or all of them a trip to Major League Baseball's Pitch, Hit and Run national finals at next month's All-Star Game in San Diego.
Hayes is trying to three-peat as national champ in her final year of competition, a feat never before accomplished by either a boy or girl. Collins is trying to get back to nationals for the first time since finishing second as an 8-year-old. Lewis, who will be in the third grade at Chattanooga Valley Elementary this school year, is attempting to qualify for a spot at nationals for the first time.
"They're all great athletes," Leftwich said. "They're all great players on their own teams. I think they'll do well."
The Pitch, Hit and Run competition is both simple and difficult. You throw toward home plate for accuracy, attempting to hit a target. You hit off the tee, both for accuracy and distance. You run from second base to home plate while being timed - and making sure to touch third and home.
For Hayes, who's entering the ninth grade at East Hamilton, taking part in MLB All-Star festivities is almost expected. She won it all in Minneapolis in 2014 and in Cincinnati last summer. At last year's game, which was also former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter's last hurrah, she even "made eye contact with (Jeter) and he winked at me. It was unbelievable."
Yet kids being kids, and pretty cool kids at that, what Hayes and Collins both say they've most enjoyed about their prior trips to the nationals is, in Hayes' words, "Just getting to make a lot of new friends."
Added Collins, soon to be a seventh-grader at Baylor School, of her time in Kansas City in 2012, "Just getting to know new people, getting to go to museums and stuff."
Then there's Lewis, who's spending this summer playing third base for the Frost Falcons youth program.
Asked what she likes most about the competition, she said, "I get to go to Atlanta."
Asked what she most likes about softball in general, she gave an answer any coach would love, saying, "I like playing defense."
Unfortunately, fielding the ball isn't part of Pitch, Hit and Run competition. And because Hayes has chosen to focus more on AAU basketball this summer than the contest, she admits she had to put in a lot of diamond work this past week or so.
But because of her experience, Hayes has been able to advise Collins and Lewis on what can help them win - everything from making the most of those three swings off the tee to making sure you hit the corner of the bag rounding third base.
"Hitting off the tee only three times is hard," said Hayes, whose ultimate athletic dream is to one day play basketball for the University of North Carolina. "You have to try to make every hit count. Running and pitching aren't as hard."
The hardest part may have been deciding what to eat for breakfast on the way to Turner Field, where registration was scheduled for 8 a.m., with the skills competition to begin shortly thereafter.
"Probably sausage biscuits at Krystal," Leftwich said.
"IHOP or McDonald's," countered Hayes.
Yet whatever they ultimately determined would become their breakfast of champions, Collins perfectly described what it would mean for any of them - or all of them - to reach the finals in San Diego on July 9-11.
Her eyes twinkling, she said, "It would be big, big, big, big."
For them. For their families and friends. And for their town that we call home.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.