Prep softball: Weber bats get going early, Warriors run-rule Fremont to reach 3-0 in Region 1
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- Weber High’s Brylee Leatherwood (15) celebrates hitting a home run with head coach Melinda wade (right) during a prep softball game at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Weber High’s Hadley Howell (24) attempts to tag out Fremont’s Savannah Palmatier (right) during a prep softball game against Weber at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Fremont High’s Reata O’Neal makes a throw to home plate during a prep softball game against Weber at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Weber High’s Brylee Leatherwood, center, is mobbed by teammates, including Taelyn Poulsen, right, after hitting a home run during a prep softball game at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Fremont High’s Savannah Palmatier hits the ball during a prep softball game against Weber at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Weber High’s Isabella Bird runs the bases during a prep softball game at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Weber High’s Brylee Leatherwood makes a catch on a fly ball during a prep softball game at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Weber High’s Isabella Bird runs to third base during a prep softball game at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Fremont High’s Lexie Weston hits the ball during a prep softball game against Weber at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
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- Fremont High’s Ayzlee Sessions throws a pitch during a prep softball game against Weber at Fremont High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
PLAIN CITY — The high school softball season is a little more than five weeks old and Weber High’s team has played four games.
Such is life with the constant snowfall that has kept the Warriors from practicing outside, more so than many other schools in the area thanks to the school’s location high up on the bench.
They, like everyone else who’s just emerged from indoor lighting, were happy to be outside Thursday.
“We were inside like every day for practice but we’re grateful for it because our coaches always throw in fun things, games — like, we played dodgeball one time, pickleball, we scrimmaged the baseball team in wiffle ball,” Weber junior catcher Ellie Nielsen said.
So far, they’re not playing like a team that has barely seen its own field. Weber beat Fremont 13-3 on Thursday to win its third straight Region 1 game, all by run rule.
“Fremont has always really been our rivalry and, for some reason, we flip a switch when we play Fremont. We’ll do really good in any game, any situation, but Fremont — we push against Fremont. We always have, we always will,” Nielsen said.
For their ability to play so well despite just three outside practices, the Warriors can thank a lot of things, including team experience.
Nielsen, pitcher Kendall Strasburg, third baseman Hadley Howell, outfielder Olivia Boswell and outfielder Brailee Avner are all returning starters.
“We have one freshman starting, and the rest of them are all returners,” Weber coach Melinda Wade said. “It’s huge, they’ve been in pressure situations. Even today, we had situations where we could have folded real easily and given up some runs, but experience, knowing how to react in those situations … is huge for us.”
On Thursday, the Warriors (3-1, 3-0 Region 1) both hit the ball well and took advantage of numerous Fremont errors and unlucky bounces in the outfield.
In a six-run second inning, most Weber hits went to left field: Brylee Leatherwood’s two-run homer, Ellie Nielsen’s RBI base hit, Hadley Howell’s RBI single and Brailee Avner’s RBI single, plus other hits that set up the scoring.
“We talked about how we want to string hits and how we need to be supportive of each other’s hits, so it was really our team. We just worked really well together and we pushed hard,” Nielsen said.
The only thing that didn’t go to left field was a wild pitch that Olivia Boswell scored on, one of three times she scored.
All of that made Weber’s lead 7-1; Fremont made seven defensive position changes to start the third inning, including bringing Audrey Cooper in to pitch.
The Silverwolves got through the third inning unscathed, but Weber scored four runs in the fourth, two of them coming when Aliya Rhees’ grounder got past a diving Savannah Palmatier up the middle for an 11-1 lead.
Fremont (4-3, 2-3) scored one in the bottom half, then Nielsen put Weber ahead by 11 with a two-run homer to, once again, left field. Eight different players had a base hit and five players drove in a run for the Warriors.
Wade taped a picture of a puzzle on the dugout wall to get a message across for this particular game: that the puzzle isn’t complete with all the parts linking together.
“You string hits together, that really was a key to this win. We had some mistakes defensively, but we always had some really good defensive plays,” Wade said.
Reata O’Neal and Saige Steel had one RBI each for the Silverwolves; Lexie Weston and Savannah Palmatier each hit a triple.
Fremont had plenty of scoring chances to either avoid the run rule or mount a comeback but couldn’t do enough with those chances and lost its third straight region game.
A cascade of postponed Region 1 games in March led to the region coaches scheduling an all-day makeup session this Saturday at Ellison Park, where most teams will play two games.
Weber, Syracuse and Farmington are unbeaten in region games so far; the Warriors will face both on Saturday and Fremont plays Layton before playing games again on Monday and Tuesday.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
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