Freshmen have been fabulous for West Greene
The effect four freshmen have had on West Greene’s softball team this season is similar to what happens when a live wire touches water.
Twin sisters Madison and McKenna Lampe, Kaitlyn Rizor and Mackenna Carpenter added an infusion of talent any high school softball coach would envy.
The four helped catapult West Greene’s softball teams to heights not reached before, and pumped expectations well beyond those of most teams.
In Friday morning’s game against Chartiers-Houston, the four went a combined 7-for-16 with six runs and four RBI in a 12-3 victory at California University’s Lilley field that gave the Pioneers their first WPIAL title in the program’s history.
“This group (of freshmen) has won everything there is to win on the travel teams they played on,” said West Greene head coach Bill Simms. “As a group, we go to tournaments and play in a fall league in Wheeling, and we’ve won the league several times with this team playing up. It’s a group we like to challenge and they have met the challenge.”
What makes these freshmen so unique is the way they easily handle the pressure of varsity competition. Nothing seems to rattle them.
McKenna Lampe smacked two home runs in the most important game to date: the WPIAL championship. That doubled her home run total for the season and raised her batting average to .613.
“We talked about (winning the title),” McKenna said. “We knew it would be a big thing because no one had done it before. When we got the last out, I was like ‘yeah. We’re going to win it.'”
Madison Lampe is batting .481 with five home runs, 39 RBI and 11 stolen bases this season. Carpenter is hitting .431 with 11 runs and 18 RBI and Rizor is at .429 with five home runs and 25 RBI.
Those numbers, blended with the other talented players on the team, made the Pioneers unstoppable as their 20-game winning streak might suggest.
“It feels pretty good to win this because it’s the first for our school,” said Madison Lampe. “We’re very competitive but I think it helps us. We try to help each other.”
The most impressive statistic from the Class A championship game might be this:
Of the 19 players on West Greene’s roster and Chartiers-Houston’s 11, only one – Pioneers shortstop Bailey Bennington – is a senior. West Greene started four freshmen and Chartiers-Houston had three in the lineup.
That bodes well for the future of both programs, who have become familiar with one another while playing in Section 1-A.
That rivalry, however, is likely to come to an end, at least on a section game basis. Chartiers-Houston is expected to be playing in Class AA next season, when the PIAA expands to six classifications in softball. West Greene is firmly within the Class A enrollment guidelines.
West Greene used aggressive baserunning to score a run in the third inning. Madison Renner led off the inning with a solo home run to give the Pioneers a 4-1 lead.
Bennington got on via error and was sacrificed to second base by Rizor, then moved to third on a passed ball.
That’s when it got interesting.
First baseman Lexie Mooney drew a walk and trotted to first. When she reached the bag, Mooney broke for second base and was thrown out. As this happened, Bennington raced home to make it 5-1.
In the fifth inning, Madison Lampe and Renner hit back-to-back doubles but did not produce a run. Lampe’s double was a blast to right-center field but Renner’s was a well-placed fly just over second base that Brittany Blumen nearly made a diving catch of running in from center field.
The ball glanced off Blumen’s glove and Renner made it to second. Lampe had to hold at second so as not to be doubled up if Blumen made the catch, advancing to third only after ball dropped into play.