A look at some of the top area high school softball teams, listed alphabetically, through Tuesday’s games.
Bethany Community (8-3, 3-0 Northwest Piedmont 1A): Finished 16-7 last year and undefeated in conference with an appearance in the NCHSAA 1A third round. Bethany Community has faced tough non-conference competition, with its three losses coming to McMichael, Wesleyan Christian and Morehead. It had a 10-inning victory over NCHSAA 3A Eastern Guilford on March 14 for a signature win. Three different pitchers have combined for a 3.36 ERA, with sophomore Peyton Weavil posting a 2.79 ERA. Freshman Mattie Southard and sophomore Audrey Waddell are batting .550 and .500, respectively.
Eastern Guilford (5-3, 3-1 Mid-State 3A): Battery mates Kamryn Permar and Jasmine Mack have been key pieces as the Lady Wildcats’ third- and fourth-place hitters. Mack leads the team with a .591 batting average, 15 RBIs and three home runs and three doubles from the cleanup spot. Permar is batting .455 and junior Krista Gunnell is batting .423. As a pitcher, Permar is 4-3 with a 3.10 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 52 innings pitched. The Wildcats split with Western Alamance to start the season, and since then lost 4-3 to Rockingham County and 5-3 to Bethany Community.
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High Point Christian (8-0, N/A): The Lady Cougars only had two seniors on last year’s very young NCISAA 3A state championship team. This year’s team has one senior, two juniors and seven players that are either freshman or eighth-graders, yet they have won their first eight games by a combined 96-17. This includes a 21-6 win over Central Piedmont 4A Conference leader East Forsyth. Three regulars are batting over .500: freshman Kerri Langfitt (.625), junior Maci Burkhart (.565) and eighth-grader Landyn Smith (.500), while five other everyday players are batting .400 or better. Freshman Paisley Dixon is 4-0 with a 1.53 ERA and the team has a .955 fielding percentage.
McMichael (10-1, 5-1 Mid-State 2A): The Lady Phoenix come off a 27-1 season in which they were the NCHSAA 2A West No. 1 seed and reached the fourth round. Radford signee Dakota Redmon picked up where she left off last year, batting .581 with a 2.085 OPS, a team-high seven home runs and four doubles, while posting an 9-1 record and a 1.29 ERA as a pitcher. This includes striking out 104 of 193 batters faced for a 53.9% clip. Freshman Kora Ingle is batting .593 with eight doubles and two home runs. The Lady Phoenix’s lone loss was a 7-5 defeat to conference rival West Stokes.
Morehead (3-4, 0-2 Mid-State 2A): A tough schedule, only lost 1-0 to McMichael in their most recent outing and split with Bethany Community. Senior Tylar Crawford is batting .600 with 12 hits and 11 runs for the Lady Panthers. Pitching has been more by committee than most staffs. Finished 14-6 and reached the NCHSAA 2A second round last year.
Northern Guilford (4-4, 4-1 Metro 4A): Only Northwest Guilford got wins over them in conference play last season. This year’s team has had tight losses to Randleman and Eastern Guilford; apart from that, its only defeats were to undefeated Oak Grove and 9-2 Southwest Guilford. Sophomore Morgan Headen is one of the area’s hottest hitters with a team-leading .619 batting average and also leads the Lady Nighthawks with 13 hits, eight RBIs, three doubles and three triples. They allowed 13 runs to Oak Grove and 12 to Southwest Guilford but haven’t allowed more than two runs in any other game.
Northwest Guilford (9-0, 5-0 Metro 4A): Primary pitcher Bel Varadi, an Appalachian State signee, is 6-0 with a 1.22 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 46 innings pitched, while also batting .464 with 21 RBIs, two home runs and four triples. She threw a complete-game no-hitter with 14 strikeouts in seven innings on Thursday against Southeast Guilford and on March 19, struck out eight of nine batters faced against Ragsdale in a three-inning mercy rule perfect game. Senior Jenna Copeland has also been strong offensively with a .583 batting average, a home run and four doubles on the season, while fellow senior Callie Rodrigues is batting .524 with a team-high 15 runs to go along with three doubles and a triple. Last season, they finished 21-4 for their best winning percentage since 2016 and reached the NCHSAA 4A fourth round.
Rockingham County (6-3, 6-0 Mid-State 3A): Went 24-7, 14-0 in conference, and lost a nail-biter in the NCHSAA 3A regional final to eventual state champion Lincoln. The road to the regional final also included a 2-1 upset over Oak Grove. This year’s team has had a mix of challenging and easier opponents, with two of their losses coming to Oak Grove and one coming to McMichael. Their 4-3 win on March 12 over Eastern Guilford could prove pivotal in deciding the conference race. Senior Chloe Hershman was their leading hitter at .438 entering Tuesday’s two-game sweep over Atkins.
Southwest Guilford (9-2, 6-0 Metro 4A): The Cowgirls finished 12-11 last year and are experiencing their best record since a 11-4 mark in the abbreviated 2021 season. Three batters are over .500 so far and six are batting at least .417. Junior Amelia Stewart is batting .586 with three triples, two doubles and a home run. Sophomore Aniya Harris is batting .516 with two home runs, three doubles, and a team-leading 25 RBIs. Senior Damyia McFadden is batting .571.
Wesleyan Christian (5-1, N/A): The Lady Trojans reached the NCISAA 4A quarterfinals last year, but appear to continue a surge of improvement over the last several years. In 2021, it finished 4-11, in 2022 2-15 and then last year, 7-7. The schedule gets tough with a rematch with Bethany Community (started Tuesday but delayed), followed by undefeated Uwharrie Charter on Thursday, two games against High Point Christian before the season ends and a test against North Raleigh Christian in April. Junior Alexis Emery and freshman Maris Morgan lead Wesleyan in hitting at .556 and .529, respectively. Morgan also has a 5-1 record with a 2.17 ERA.