MORGANTOWN — University High’s Autumn Stemple continued her impressive freshman season against three-time Class A defending state champion Wheeling Central on Tuesday at Mylan Park.
She tossed all seven innings in the Hawks’ 2-1 win, with the Maroon Knights’ lone run coming on a bloop hit into left field in the top of the 7th. Stemple was dominant, though UHS’s offense continues to struggle.
Kayla Wilkins lined a tripled to right field and eventually scored on a Lauren Vorndran single, while the other run was scored when Wheeling Central catcher Jaden Thomas couldn’t haul in a throw.
It was a win against a quality opponent that the Hawks needed on a sunny, warm evening on top of the hill, and while those conditions are ideal for any softball game, the weather has almost been too nice this season for UHS (6-11).
In recent years, unpredictable spring weather would wreak havoc on the state softball and baseball schedules, causing postponements and cancellations early in the season as winter turned to spring.
This season, however, the rain and bad weather have been few and far between.
“They’ve played a lot of softball this year because the weather’s been great, which is awesome, but it’s also been tiring,” UHS coach Mindy Parks said.
Because of the history with early-season rainouts, teams are front-loading their schedules in hopes that they can get enough games in early in case of postponements so games can be scheduled later, but since rain has held off, teams are playing almost every day with doubleheaders scattered throughout. They’ve only had two rainouts so far.
Since March 14 — 26 days — the Hawks played 17 games, and will play at Wheeling Park today, a doubleheader at Oak Glen on Thursday and a home game against Brooke on Friday.
UHS will play at Disney World next week for its annual spring trip.
“We are playing games everyday,” senior second baseman Layne Assif said. “The pace is very fast and becomes tiring. The nice weather is a huge for us because we are getting a lot of work in to get us ready for the postseason.”
Once the Hawks return from Florida, they will only have two regular season games remaining. The sectional tournament does not begin until April 29.
“This week was tough but last week was really hard, too,” Parks said. “We’ve had two full weeks with doubleheaders. It’s been hard and the kids are tired.”
One of UHS’s two rainouts was Monday night when a trip to Buckhannon-Upshur was canceled, so Parks was excited to finally have a day to breathe and work on hitting rather than being thrown into meaningful situations.
“We struggle on offense and we leave a lot of people on base,” Parks said. “We struggle a little bit at the plate, but we’re starting to make contact, though I’d like to see us swing for hits instead of contact.
“They’re getting better. It’s a young group, but they’re getting better.”
