Apr 21, 2016 4 min read

HOUSTON – As the first pitch slowly approached the plate, Bailey Bennington saw an opportunity to give West Greene an early lead and move the Pioneers closer to cementing themselves as the top team in WPIAL Class A.

The senior shortstop stayed back and nailed the pitch over the Chartiers-Houston banners from the program’s 24 section titles hanging on the right-center field fence.

The ping of the bat served as a bold statement from the soft-spoken Bennington, the hype surrounding West Greene softball is real, and the Pioneers are ready to make history.

Bennington hit two home runs and drove in four runs as West Greene had 12 hits in a 12-2 six-inning win over Chartiers-Houston, last year’s WPIAL runner up, in a Section 1-A game at Allison Park Elementary Field Thursday afternoon.

Bennington went 3-for-3 with three runs and three other West Greene players had multi-hit games, including freshman center fielder McKenna Lampe, who went 3-for-4 with two runs in the leadoff spot.

“It feels like we’re kind of unstoppable and there’s nothing that can stop us,” Bennington, a California University recruit, said.

It’s certainly looked that way this season. The Pioneers (5-0, 13-1) extended their winning streak to 10 games and have scored at least 10 runs in nine straight, including an 11-1 victory over the Bucs earlier this month. It was the second straight victory for pitcher Madison Renner over the Bucs this season.

The West Greene offense starts with Lampe and her twin sister, Madison, who went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI triple. McKenna led off the game with a single and was thrown out on a fielder’s choice before Bennington’s two-run homer gave West Greene a 2-0 lead.

McKenna and Madison Lampe each had infield singles in the third, and both scored on sacrifice flies by Renner and Bennington. The Pioneers scored five runs in the fifth on Madison Lampe’s RBI triple, a solo home run by Bennington – this one to left field and into the batting cages 15 feet behind the fence – an RBI single by Mackenzie Carpenter and another run scored on an error for the 9-1 lead.

“When we have McKenna Lampe, Madison Lampe and the thunder up at the top, it’s nice,” West Greene head coach Bill Simms said. “You get that 2-0 lead, it’s a nice icebreaker in a tension game because you look out there at the banners in the outfield. They haven’t won them for nothing.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for them. Beating them twice isn’t a signature thing for us, but it’s very important to our season.”

Chartiers-Houston (4-2, 7-4) is a different team than last season’s. The Bucs are replacing six starters from last season and despite the inexperience, won six consecutive games since the first loss to West Greene.

Much of that has to do with sophomore pitcher Kaitlyn Dittrich, an all-state selection last season who struck out three Thursday. But C-H struggled at the plate against the Pioneers, finishing with six hits and stranding six on base.

Chartiers-Houston got one run in the fourth inning when courtesy runner Macie Shober scored on an error and Kayla Alderson delivered an RBI double in the sixth inning. But the Bucs committed three errors in the final two innings.

“We got beat,” C-H head coach Tricia Alderson said. “They hit the ball and at the end of the game, we made some errors and gave them extra outs. That’s tough when it’s your pitcher’s third day in a row pitching. They hit the ball well and we can’t beat a team scoring two runs, but we saw some positives.”

West Greene enforced the mercy rule with a three-run sixth inning, which was aided by another error. A dropped fly ball allowed Renner to reach second, Bennington was intentionally walked and freshman second baseman Kaitlyn Rizor hit a two-run double to left field.

On the first pitch of the next at bat, sophomore Lexie Mooney added an RBI single for a 12-1 lead.

The Pioneers are having success with only one senior on the roster, and with four freshmen and three sophomores starting. It helps that the one senior is one of the most feared hitters in the WPIAL and youth doesn’t always dictate experience.

“We’re blessed with young talent, but I keep saying over, over, over and over again that they’re only freshmen in grade,” Simms said. “They’ve played from here to the Mississippi River and back, up and down the East Coast. They’re not your typical freshmen.”