"I was a thrower and not a pitcher", she admitted. In that season, she collected a 3.38 earned run average in eight innings of work while playing 25 games at outfield. Fort Wayne advanced again to the playoffs, losing to the Grand Rapids Chicks in the best-of-three first round series. Smith opened 1950 with the Peoria Redwings. She finished with a 2–0 record and a 1.80 ERA in four relief appearances. As a hitter, she went 58–for–267 (.217) with 36 runs and 14 RBI in 89 games, including 10 doubles and three triples, while stealing 12 bases. Smith had her first good season in 1951, collecting a .233 average with 10 doubles and 38 stolen bases, driving in 30 runs while scoring 50 times in 93 games. She made 18 appearances on the mound, posting a 7–7 record and a 2.92 ERA in a career-high 111 innings. For the next three years Smith played for the Grand Rapids Chicks, a strong team managed by Woody English, which included talented players as Jean Geissinger, Pepper Paire, Doris Satterfield, Dorothy Stolze, Connie Wisniewski and Alma Ziegler. Smith shared outfield duties with Geissinger, Satterfield and Wisniewski, hitting .196 in 46 games while going 1–2 as a reliever. Grand Rapids advanced to the playoffs, but was swept by the South Bend Blue Sox in the best-of-three series on strong pitching by Jean Faut. Smith had a solid season in 1953, hitting .227 with 73 stolen bases and a .343 OBP in a career-high 114 games, being surpassed only by Fort Wayne's Betty Foss for the most stolen bases (80). She also posted career numbers in hits (91), runs (86), doubles (20), triples (5) and steals, while walking 71 times and tying for third in doubles. In the best-of-three first round series, third place Kalamazoo Lassies disposed of first place Fort Wayne, and second place Grand Rapids drew fourth place Rockford. In the best-of-three final series, Grand Rapids swept Kalamazoo behind complete game victories by Mary Lou Studnicka and Earlene Risinger. In Game 1, Studnicka limited the Lassies to seven hits in a 7–2 victory, while Risinger drove in two runs and struck out nine to whip Kalamazoo, 4–3, in a cold weather, shortened seven-inning game.