MORGANTOWN – The Buckhannon-Upshur softball Lady Bucs had a rough start to their 2022 debut in a 10-0 five-inning road loss to the University Hawks.
The Lady Bucs were no-hit in the shortened contest by one of the best pitchers in the state in University’s Austin Stemple, who was a first-team all-state selection last year.
“Stemple is a tough pitcher,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Levi Bender. “This early in the season, pitching will be at least a little better than your hitting. When you open the season with one of the better pitchers in the state, you’re facing an uphill battle. Even though we were no-hit and the stat sheet isn’t pretty, we had tough at-bats up and down the lineup.
“More than half of our at-bats were considered quality. We saw five pitches per at-bat and seven batters saw six-plus pitches. Basically, we battled at the plate and put ourselves in situations to succeed. It just wasn’t our night.”
University scored four runs in the bottom of the second and tacked on six more in the bottom of the fourth for their 10-run victory.
Only four of the 10 runs were earned as the Lady Bucs had a rough day in the field committing seven errors.
“Defensively, we’re going to improve,” Bender said. “I think we had some nerves, the lack of outside practices, and positional experience really showed. With time we will clean all that up.”
Bender complimented his battery in the game, pitcher Jansen Kimble and catcher Shelby McDaniels.
“Jansen and Shelby did a fantastic job putting us in a position to win,” noted Bender. “Jansen threw 51 strikes out of 82 pitches and was around the plate the entire night.”
The Lady Bucs (0-1) will be back in action Saturday, weather permitting, hosting Parkersburg South at 11 a.m. and Grafton at 3 p.m. Parkersburg South and Grafton will meet at 1 p.m.
“Good things are there, you just have to read between the box score,” concluded Bender.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 000 00 – 0
University 040 6x – 10
E – Buckhannon-Upshur 7; University 2. DP – None. LoB – Buckhannon-Upshur 2; University 6. 2B – University 2. SB – University 2.
Hitting
Buckhannon-Upshur – Brooklyn Robinson eh, 1 0 0 0; Shelby McDaniels c, 2 0 0 0; Robin Ball 3b, 2 0 0 0; Meghan Bailey 2b, 2 0 0 0; Jansen Kimble p, 2 0 0 0; Taylor Spratt 1b, 2 0 0 0 ; Kailey Hart 2 0 0 0; Alyssa Abel cf, 2 0 0 0; Katarah Linger ss, 1 0 0 0, Quinn Burnside 0 0 0 0. Totals 16 0 0 0.
University – No. 3, eh, 4 1 1 0; No. 2 3b, 2 2 0 0; No. 4 ss, 2 2 2 3; No. 22 eh, 3 1 1 0; Austin Stemple p, 3 0 1 0; No. 9 1b, 3 1 1 2; No. 14 eh, 3 0 0 0; No. 12 lf, 3 0 1 1; No. 21 2b, 3 2 2 0; No. 15 cr, 0 1 0 0. Totals 26 10 9 6.
Pitching
Buckhannon-Upshur – Kimble (L, 0-1): 4 innings, 9 hits, 10 runs, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 1 wild pitch.
University – Stemple (W, 1-0): 5 innings, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts.
*Note: University names were not recorded in the scorebook.
