West Greene’s Renner laments end of the show
Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Jade Renner helped the Pioneers win three WPIAL titles and two state championships.
Observer-Reporter
In three seasons for West Greene, pitcher Jade Renner had a 57-10 career record, including a 19-1 postseason mark.
Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Jade Renner celebrates at second base after hitting a game-tying double in the bottom of the seventh inning against Monessen in the 2018 WPIAL Class A Championship game.
Jade Renner didn’t need a curtain call.
The West Greene starting softball pitcher found out that curtain call – or in this case her senior season – would never come because the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the entire spring sports season.
She felt the emptiness. She felt the heartbreak.
“I found out at my house,” Renner remembers when the official announcement came that her senior season wouldn’t even begin. “My feeling is that I didn’t get closure. It just feels empty. I saw so many seniors enjoy their last year. I didn’t get to do that, but we had an amazing ride so I can’t be too upset about it.”
That amazing ride for Renner included being part of three of the Pioneers’ four straight WPIAL titles and a pair of Class A state championships. The championships accompany statistics in the circle that go unmatched by many in district history.
How good?
In her three seasons, Renner had a 57-10 record.
“We had a hammer out there,” West Greene coach Bill Simms said. “She was tough, always searching to get better. She always gave us a chance.”
Renner gave West Greene more than a chance in the postseason, allowing just five earned runs in nine WPIAL playoff games. In playoff games, both WPIAL and PIAA, Renner was a combined 19-1.
She finished her high school career with 315 strikeouts and a 1.93 earned run average, yet maybe the most important part was Renner never stopped working to improve. The morning after winning one of West Greene’s state championships, Renner was at a pitching lesson.
Simms knew what he had early on, allowing her to pitch in a varsity fall-league game in Wheeling, W.Va., when she was only in the sixth grade. Since, she took control in the circle by developing new pitches, including a deadly changeup from her left-handed delivery.
“It’s devastating,” Simms said of Renner’s changeup. “The control she has of it separates her from others. She will throw it on a 3-2 count to a No. 4 hitter. Year after year we continued to work on a lot of different pitchers, from a rise ball, snap hook and a screwball tailing away.”
A part of the game that got overlooked is what she did as a hitter. She hit .481 for her career with 27 doubles and 99 RBI. In 243 at-bats, she only struck out six times, never more than three times in a single season.
“I came in during a time where we had girls who rocketed balls out of the field and had speed on their side,” Renner said. “I feel that I’m a happy medium of the two. I’m not the fastest but have the strength. I was the player who got clutch hits, gap hits and didn’t strike out a lot. It’s hard to get recognition hitting when you are kind of know for your pitching.”
But when Renner, an Edinboro recruit, learned her final high school season had already been played, the first thing she did was go to the softball field with sister Madison and some friends.
To do what?
What she’s done best over the course of the last three years. … make memories.
“I hope I get to be remembered and be someone’s idol as they grow up,” Renner said. “I want to be someone to look up to. I want to inspire little kids to pitch. I will be flattered that in five years when some little girls says, ‘Hey, I want to pitch like Jade Renner.'”