May 9, 2018 3 min read

A bus returning students from a weekend band trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., pulled into the Chartiers-Houston High School parking lot at 9:30 Sunday night.

A half hour later, Bucs assistant softball coach Dan Alderson was throwing batting practice to three girls who were on the trip: Kasey Scears, Karlyn Bayer and Hannah Siege, in preparation for Chartiers-Houston’s game Monday against Monessen.

“They mentioned it before leaving,” Chartiers-Houston coach Tricia Alderson said. “I said ‘If you’re tired, then it’s just going to be counterproductive.’ But they texted me as soon as they got back wanting to get in the cage.”

The thought was there but the results weren’t for the Bucs. They relied on one hit – a Kaci Alderson solo home run to center field in the first inning – to defeat Monessen and its pitching ace Dana Vatakis, 1-0, in a non-section game.

Aside from Monday, hitting has not been a problem for Chartiers-Houston (14-2). The Bucs’ lineup has transformed from being young, with only one senior on their entire roster, to dynamic, putting up eyebrow-raising numbers.

Chartiers-Houston is one of only four WPIAL teams – the others are West Allegheny, West Greene and Union – to score 10-plus runs in 11 or more games this season. The Bucs have inflicted the mercy rule 10 times, have shut out opponents in six games and average 10.9 runs per game.

“We’ve been getting good production from all different parts of our order,” Tricia Alderson said. “We work (on hitting) a lot in practice. I think sometimes it comes down to not overcomplicating hitting. When kids are thinking too much about the mechanics, then it can be a detriment. It’s about keeping it simple.”

The keeping-it-simple mindset carries all the way to C-H’s rarely used pitching machine that has collected dust over the last nine years in the equipment shed. Batting practices are done with live pitching, which has led to lively bats for the Bucs, who have hit at least one homer in 12 of their 16 games. Sophomore Kaci Alderson leads C-H with eight, junior transfer Ella Brookman has gone deep five times and Scears has four.

“None of our kids go up and try to hit a home run,” Tricia Alderson said. “It’s just see the ball, hit the ball. If it goes, it goes. It’s a little bit unexpected because we graduated three starters (Kayla Alderson, Macie Kesneck and Brittany Blumen). We weren’t quite sure how to replace that production.”

The Bucs have done it with consistency. Seven players are hitting at least .300, and they have outscored their opponents 175-38.

“(Our players) feel confident but are not over confident,” Tricia Alderson said. “We feel pretty good about the schedule we’ve played and how we’ve been playing lately moving toward the playoffs. We’ve had some success against the Class 2A teams but every game is different. Hopefully good things will continue to happen.”