Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WHEELERSBURG — Welcome home, Wheelersburg.
For years, the Pirates shared a field at Gene Bennett Park while building a program that is among the elite — not just throughout the state, but in the nation.
However, Wednesday was the start of the next great chapter of Wheelersburg softball. The Pirates stepped onto their brand new home field for the first time and flexed their muscles while doing so.
“I had former players messaging me all throughout the day wishing they could have been here to see the field for the first time,” Wheelersburg coach Teresa Ruby said. “The funny thing was that a lot of them said that they didn’t know whether to be happy or mad because they wanted to play on a field of their own. But this field happened all because of the work and foundation they laid during their time here.
“It was pretty cool looking out into the field and seeing so many people, not just in the stands, but in the outfield as well just soaking it all in. This community shows up, and they have since day one with the project with their time, money and expertise to give these girls a field of their own. It’s really special.”
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
In typical Wheelersburg (4-2, 2-0 SOC III) fashion, the Pirates broke in their new confines in the only way they know how — with a victory.
‘Burg jumped out to a lead early and rode its defense the rest of the way, led by Rylan Butcher in the circle, for a 5-0 victory over Valley in SOC III action.
“We came out on fire, which is great, but then we just couldn’t manufacture any more runs,” Ruby said. “We’re a young team and still working on a lot of things to help us find our consistency, and it’ll come as the season goes. But I was really happy that we put our defense together and played a really good game on that side of the ball.”
Butcher was sensational, controlling the game from the first pitch until the final out.
The freshman tossed a gem, allowing just two hits and striking out a season-best 12 batters.
“Rylan pitched a heck of a game, and she had great support behind her,” Ruby said. “She’s just a freshman, but there’s a lot of talent and she’s only going to get better. We committed way too many errors last weekend, so we really stressed that side of the ball this week and it’s coming together game by game.”
Out of the gates, the Pirates quickly loaded the bases with a double from Mylee Jo Gleim, a bunt single from Matti Jennings and a walk drawn by Ava Estep.
That set up Jalynn Drake to take a 1-2 pitch and rip it into left field for a two-run single, putting the Pirates ahead 2-0.
Following a strikeout, Mackenzie Mullins and Lauren Truitt notched back-to-back RBI singles to extend the lead to 4-0.
The rest of the day belonged to Butcher and the Pirates’ defense.
Butcher posted a pair of strikeouts in the second, one each in the third and fourth, and struck out the side in the fifth to keep the Indians (5-5, 1-1 SOC III) at bay.
Estep added an insurance run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0 before Butcher sat down Valley in order to end the contest and mark the Pirates’ fourth shutout win of the season.
“I like the recipe. Teams can’t win if they don’t score and that makes it easier on me,” Ruby said, with a laugh. “At the end of the day, we just want to see progression from the girls and we saw a little bit of that today. We’ll continue working, hit our targets and you never want to be playing your best ball in early April. So we have some time to put everything together.”
Following Butcher’s final stat line, Truitt finished 3-for-3 with an RBI, Mullins was 1-for-3 with an RBI, Drake went 1-for-4 with two RBIs, and Estep was 0-for-2 with an RBI.
For Valley, Kendyl Christman suffered the loss in six innings of work, allowing five runs and striking out six batters.
Wheelersburg returns to action on Friday at Minford for SOC III action, while Valley welcomes South Webster to Lucasville that same evening.
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