With the summer coming to a close that means the travel baseball and softball season have wrapped up here in the area. With plenty of travel teams having success this summer, there was one that can say they were world series champions. That would be Crawfordsville’s own 14U Indiana Revival team that is coached by Britney Carpenter and Hall of Fame Crawfordsville baseball coach John Froedge.
The team concluded their stellar summer slate with by competing int eh North American World Series in Columbus, OH with over 90 teams in attendance. After a lengthy visit from mother nature that took place during the quarter-finals the tournament was called and along with the three other teams, Revival were named co-champions.
The World Series appearance was the second straight for the Revival program as last season the 12U team made qualified as well. Carpenter and Froedge began the program back in 2020 and have wasted little time in not only having success on the field, but also wanted to help teach life lessons off of it.
“We began the Revival program primarily with the intentions of offering a high quality, competitive, developmental program to families who wanted to do “travel ball” a little differently,” Carpenter said. “We wanted to create a program that would allow for these young ladies to continue to be multi-sport athletes in a very family friendly, Christ-centered environment where they could learn all the life lessons softball has to offer, while keeping a proper perspective on it.”
In its three years as a program Revival holds an overall record of 92-56. The team is comprised of mainly of young girls from the Crawfordsville and Montgomery County area, but does have a few players from the likes of Zionsville, Lebanon, Martinsville, and Western. Players from Montgomery County include Ella Barry (Southmont), Sabella Moore (Crawfordsville), Kaylee Turner (Southmont), Halle Carpenter (Homeschool), and Emily Link (Southmont).
Carpenter also notes how the importance of allowing her players to explore playing as many sports as possible while they’re young and developing their relationship through Jesus Christ.
“Softball (any sport) can be a tool used to sharpen an individual and build character that will serve them well throughout life, but too many times it seems to become an all-consuming part of their identity,” she said. “We want them to understand that their identity lies in who they are in Christ, not in how they perform or the accolades they receive. This knowledge that their identity does not lie in their performance allows them to play hard and love the game, without fear of failure. We’ve been blessed by the players and families we’ve had who support the ultimate purpose of this team.”
It’s been much bigger than just the game of softball for Carpenter and her players.
Revival as stated previously has two teams for 12U and 14U age girls. They’re already gearing up for next season and according to Carpenter will have at least 12 players from Montgomery County and more from surrounding counties. While their mission is to grow the game here in Crawfordsville, growing the sport of softball no matter where that might be is also a major focus for Carpenter.
“Our hope is to help these young athletes build a solid foundation that they can take back to their schools and help grow the programs there as well,” she said. “The name Revival represents two core purposes of our team - 1) we pray and hope for a spiritual revival in our community and nation, and that we as a team could honor the Lord in what we do and 2) that we could see a ‘revival’ of strong girls sports programs in the area that would give athletes the opportunity to know the joy and benefit of healthy competition, mental and physical strength, and camaraderie of teammates committed to one another.
You can follow the team on Facebook at Indiana Revival Softball - Crawfordsville, IN
The team would also like to thank Southmont High School for the use of its facilities for their practices and home games. Carpenter and the team also would like to thank the following sponsors who made this season possible. They are Shark-Co Manufacturing, Hobson Electric Inc, F.C.Tucker West Central, Top Line Athletics, Little Mexico, Rocky Ridge Golf Club, Cook Home Services, Tri-County Bank & Trust, and Fleece Insurance.
