WCH Softball Caps Huge Turnaround With First Playoff Appearance!

The Wesley Chapel softball team won almost as many games this season (19) as it had in 10 previous seasons (22), setting a school record.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Mumaw)

The Wesley Chapel High (WCH) girls basketball team won eight more games this season than it did last season. The WCH football team, just two years removed from an 0-10 season, went 7-2. The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) football team made the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

However, when it came to the 2016-17 school year, there weren’t any high school teams in Wesley Chapel that turned things around quite like the WCH softball team did.

Buoyed by a bevy of youngsters and first-year coach Steve Mumaw, the Wildcats did the improbable this spring — they beat softball powerhouses Pasco, River Ridge and Land O’Lakes in one of Tampa Bay’s toughest districts, won 19 games and made it to the Class 6A Regional semifinals before losing 4-2 to the eventual State champion Gators.

“Now that it’s over and the tears are gone, we can reflect,’’ said Mumaw. “Land O’Lakes won the State championship, and we were pretty close to (beating) them. It could have been us.”

Depending upon how many players return —the new Cypress Creek Middle/High School zones are expected to claim at least a few players — the Wildcats have the makings of what could be a state contender the next few years.

That was hardly imaginable before 2017. Although they showed signs of promise last year, winning seven games in their best season ever to that point, the previous eight years had yielded records like 2-22, 2-21, 2-20, 1-22, 1-15 and 0-24. At one point, WCH lost 27 straight games and 43 of 44 over a three-span.

Things changed this spring with the infusion of some key freshmen, who meshed instantly with a talented crop of sophomores.

“We had high expectations,’’ said Mumaw, who has had two stints as the baseball coach and one as the athletic director at WCH. “I wouldn’t say we expected to get to the point we did, but we knew we were going to be a much-improved team.”

An Ace In The Circle

You don’t win in softball if you don’t have a good pitcher, and the Wildcats have a very good one in Jordan Almasy. The newcomer went 13-6 in the circle this year, including a complete game shutout over the Gators during the season, and striking out 130 batters in 116 innings.

Catcher Neely Peterson and pitcher Jordan Almasy confer during a game this season. (Photo courtesy of Steve Mumaw)

“She was tremendous,’’ said Mumaw. “She was the reason we were what we were at the end of the season. The way she could just take another team and kind of dominate them was a key.”

The Wildcats got strong seasons from returning players like the coach’s daughter, senior Dana Mumaw (a .286 batting average and 16 RBI), as well as from sophomores Payton Hudson (.328), Ashley Nickisher (.367, 15 RBI) and Neely Peterson, who set a school record for home runs (3) and RBI (20), while hitting a team-high .443.

Peterson has to share both of those new school records with one of the talented freshmen who helped drive the Wildcats, Anna Margetis, who also added a .338 average to her exploits, and fellow frosh Morgan Herndon batted .370.

Herndon wasn’t even a starter at the beginning of the year, and came on late, as did so many of the Wildcats. Peterson, who hit in the middle of the lineup, was walked 17 times, as teams avoided her this season. But, once the rest of the lineup came around, that became a dangerous proposition. After driving in just one run during a nine-game stretch in the middle of the season, Peterson took advantage of a hot lineup, driving in 13 runs over the last 10 games.

“When they had to throw to her later in the season because girls were on base, she always came up with the hit to drive them in,” Mumaw said.

She wasn’t alone. In fact, after a season in which a school-record five players had 10 or more RBI, this spring, the Wildcats doubled that with 10 players with double figures in RBIs.

Mumaw says it was a complete team effort.

“It was enjoyable,’’ he said. “I wouldn’t say I did a better coaching job or anything, they did it all. I just had to stay out of their way.”

  

Wesley Chapel High Softball Team Still Young, But Improved

Pitcher Ally Fraley

The Wesley Chapel High (WCH) softball team, under coach Steve Mumaw, is still going to be young but has enough veteran experience returning to create what should be a stable blend of talent. The team boasts five sophomore starters, all of whom started the 2016 season as freshmen.

“It’s basically our whole infield,” Mumaw said. “We have an exciting future ahead of us, some might end up going to the new school (Cypress Creek High, which opens next fall), but we’re going to coach them up the same.”

The Wildcats suffered through a feast-or-famine 7-17 season last year, scoring eight or more runs in five of their wins, but scoring two runs or less nine times during losses. During one stretch, they were blanked in four of six games, all but one against district opponents.

The Wildcats will have to find a way to string hits together. Leading hitter and sophomore third baseman Ashley Nickisher (32 hits, .421 avg.) returns to the fold. Nickisher tied for the team lead in RBI last season with fellow sophomore Neely Peterson, and led the team with four triples and added six doubles.

Senior Dana Mumaw, the coach’s daughter, hit .390 last season with a team-high nine doubles. The hope is that the potent duo in the middle of the lineup can get the offense going.

Incoming freshman pitchers Jordan Almasy and Ally Fraley, both right-handers, add some punch to the WCH bullpen.

INF Ashley Nickisher

“It’s an upgrade from what we had last year,” Mumaw said.

With a team ERA of 9.07 last season, the Wildcats are sure to improve in 2017, especially considering Almasy has already verbally committed to the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

One of the top travel league players in the area, Almasy boasts a fastball in the mid-60 mile-per-hour range, and she swings a solid bat as well.

Wesley Chapel will need to lean on a defense that needs to be improved, and with everyone returning it should be.

“Softball is a lot of small ball,” Mumaw said. “You have to make sure your first-base and third-base defenses are all correct.”

The Wildcats will need them to be, because they play in a district where offense is king.

Defending Class 6A, District 7 champ Land O’ Lakes can both hit and run, batting .326 with 68 stolen bases last year en route to a 27-3-1 record and appearance in the state semifinals.

Even the district runners-up, River Ridge, can hit and steal — the Royal Knights piled up 15 home runs and 61 stolen bases a year ago.

With expected improvement from Pasco High as well this season, the Wildcats still hope to improve on last year’s 3-7 district record.

Quartet Of Seniors To Lead Wiregrass Ranch High Softball

(L.-r.): Wiregrass Ranch High senior softball players Kameron Aitken, Alexis Ridolph, Sam Hiley & Jaime Valenta. All four have signed to play college softball next season (Photo by Andy Warrener).

Spring is in the air and so are the softballs at Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH).

The softball team embarks on the 2017 season with high hopes. After going 9-12 a year ago, the 2017 Bulls are preparing for a season with something they haven’t had, well, ever  — a quartet of seniors, all of whom have signed to play collegiate softball.

Veterans Jaime Valenta, Sam Hiley, Alexis Ridolph and Kameron Aitken will lead a Wiregrass squad with hopes of making a little bit of school history.

The Bulls have never won a district title and despite going 9-6 outside the league, were 0-6 last year in Class 8A, District 4, a division filled with some of the better Hillsborough County softball programs.

However, if there was ever a year to make some history, it could be this one. Hiley, Aitken and Valenta were WRH’s top three hitters from 2016, and along with Ridolph make up the top four batters in your typical Bulls lineup.

Valenta provides the speed, and has been the team’s lead-off hitter the last two seasons. The right-handed centerfielder has signed to play at the next level with St. John’s River State College.

As the leadoff hitter, Valenta’s job is to get on base and then steal some, and she did both well last season, batting .377, including .428 over the final eight games. She led the Bulls in triples with four, and stolen bases with 15 in 16 attempts.

Valenta has 32 steals for her career.

“I’m the table-setter,” she says. “I enjoy the leadoff position, I’m more of a contact hitter. My teammates hit me around.”

Aitken, the Bulls’ shortstop, signed her letter of intent in November to play at Florida International University. Aitken brings a .973 fielding percentage over from last season, with just two errors in 21 games at arguably the game’s toughest position.

She hit .422, second on the team, and led the Bulls with four homers and 30 RBI.

Hiley, who is signed to play collegiate ball at Edward-Waters College in Jacksonville, can also play catcher, but is more of a utility player, able to fill in at third base, left field or wherever she is needed.

“I’m like the Band-Aid,” she says.

Hiley’s bat, though, can sometimes leave the opposing pitcher’s arm needing a Band-Aid. Last year, she led the Bulls with 30 hits in 65 official at bats, for a team-best .462 average. She was second on the team in runs scored (19), RBI (21), doubles (5) and homers (2). She carries over a six-game hitting streak from last season into this one, which officially opens Saturday, February 11, at Dunnellon. The Bulls home opener is tonight, February 15, 7:30 p.m., against the Land O’Lakes High Gators.

Hiley’s versatility is shared by Ridolph, who has shifted between second and shortstop in her tenure at Wiregrass and batted .317 last year. A Hillsborough Community College (HCC) signee, she’ll join her older sister Kaitlyn there, for a year.

“It feels unreal, being a senior,” Ridolph said. “I saw my sister and my friends graduate and I still can’t believe it’s actually my senior year now.”

WRH head coach Yamani Vazquez is delighted to have such a talented and experienced senior core, which will be backed up by some impressive younger players like junior Kacie Lemanski (.382) and sophomore Miranda Perez (.379), plus a sophomore-laden pitching staff.

“It’s exciting, it’s a great motivation for the younger players that the seniors are college recruits,” Vazquez says.

It wasn’t too long ago they were just starry-eyed freshmen themselves, fighting older players for playing time.

“I don’t think people consider just how fast the years go by,” Hiley said. “I remember when I was a freshman, Jordan Pierceall (a WRH senior at the time) told us that the years go by faster than you think, and I was looking at her and laughing. Now, I’ve blinked and it’s my senior year.”

Senior night will be held on April 13, against district rival Freedom High.

“I remember decorating for past Senior Nights,” Valenta said. “Now, it’s going to be decorated for us. I probably won’t cry but I don’t know.”