Herbert Hoover pitcher Delani Buckner (11) is back for her sophomore season after helping the Huskies earn a Classs AA state championship as a freshman last year. Craig Hudson Gazette-Mail
By: Ryan Pritt, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 29, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Any conversation of Kanawha Valley prep softball begins with Hurricane.
And why not, after the Redskins were tagged with a sparkly national ranking of No. 8 by maxpreps.com in the preseason?
Hurricane returned seven of nine starters from last year and has plenty of weapons to make a run at yet another Class AAA state championship, which would be the Redskins’ fourth in a row and fifth in six years.
But the Redskins aren’t the only Kanawha Valley team defending some hardware.
Herbert Hoover returns six starters from a squad that peaked late in winning a Class AA crown, its second since 2014. And with plenty of experience, both are off to rip-roaring starts in 2018, with Hurricane having won its first seven games and Hoover also starting the season undefeated at 3-0.
The Redskins’ Meghan Stevens is in her first year as head coach after serving as an assistant under Josh Caldwell for nine years. There’s plenty of familiarity and continuity with the team, and Stevens said she will simply try to keep the ball rolling.
“It’s pretty much keeping things business as usual, because why change?” Stevens said. “If it’s not broke, I don’t want to fool with it too much.”
Even after losing the two-time state player of the year Katie Adams and outfielder Paige Scruggs — both of whom are continuing their careers on the college level at Marshall and Morehead State, respectively — Stevens has quite an arsenal at her disposal. Seven of the nine players in Hurricane’s lineup are currently committed to play college softball.
Highlighting that list are outfielder Kiersten Landers and third baseman Jayme Bailey, both seniors who will go to Florida State and Virginia Tech, respectively, next year. Junior shortstop Caiti Mathes is also committed to play for the Hokies.
Junior catcher Zoey Dunlap will attend Youngstown State after high school with junior first baseman Taylor McCray heading to St. Leo. Sophomores Harlie Vannatter (pitcher) and Lindsey Phares (second base) will attend Bowling Green and Wisconsin-Green Bay, respectively.
Landers (.558, 37 steals, 55 runs in 2017), Bailey (.495, five home runs, 10 doubles, 44 RBIs, 19 steals) and Vannatter (20-1, 1.09 ERA, 11 shutouts) were all first-team All-State selections last year, with Mathes (seven home runs, 37 RBIs) making the second team a year after being a first-team selection as a freshman.
As talented as the Redskins are, and with as much success as the team has had in recent years, Stevens said the leadership of players like Bailey is as paramount as her contributions on the field, especially when it comes to helping the program maintain its lofty perch for years to come.
“Making them understand that this is who we are and we can’t take it for granted,” Stevens said of her younger players. “We need to bring it every day and focus — we can’t just show up. Leaders like Jayme make that a lot easier for us. She leads by example, she leads with words … she’s just an awesome teammate.”
Landers is assuming some of the pitching load after Vannatter threw a bulk of Hurricane’s innings a year ago, spelled by Adams and, occasionally, Torie Green.
Hoover also had a senior/freshmen split in the circle a year ago with Dellani Fix and Delani Buckner tossing most of the innings for the Huskies.
Buckner, a returning sophomore, seemed to grow more comfortable throughout the season and was paramount in the Huskies’ run in Vienna last year, striking out 10 in the final five innings of the Class AA title game against Chapmanville.
That kind of experience should serve the Huskies well as they try to find their way without Fix, outfielder Kelsey Naylor (both first-team All-State selections) and catcher Madison Bowles (a second-team selection).
But while the Redskins are used to wearing a bright, red target on their backs, it’s a bit new for the Huskies.
“You have to take it for what it is and know you’re a state champion, but it doesn’t come easy and each season you have to put in the work,” Buckner said after a season-opening win over Poca. “Nerves are really hard, but when you have a team like mine they’re easy to get rid of.”
“It’s not a secret what happened at the end of last year and we all feel some pressure because of that,” Hoover coach Missy Smith added. “But once the game got going, it turned in to the game we’ve played and loved for years and they settled in.”
Junior third baseman Rebekah Woody returns after receiving a second-team All-State nod last year after hitting .455, driving in 25 runs and scoring 28 times a year ago. Seniors Kirsten Belcher, Ava Young, Mallori Chapman and Mandy Parrish were all integral parts of last year’s success and should continue what Smith praised as a great tradition of leaders over the years.
“We’ve been blessed with good seniors for years,” Smith said. “They had them in the cages all winter long. When we started practice, all the freshmen knew what I expected and the drills we do in the beginning and how to handle things because the seniors had taken them all winter and mentored them.”
Reach Ryan Pritt at 304-348-7948, ryan.pritt@wvgazettemail.com or follow him @RPritt on Twitter.
