Keyser leads with 3 All-Area softball selections; Allegany, Bishop Walsh place 2

Oct. 20—After winning a school-record 28 games, the Keyser Golden Tornado led the All-Area team with three players.

Allegany and Bishop Walsh slotted a pair on the squad, and Moorefield, Northern, Petersburg and Southern had one each make the cut.

Area coaches were asked to nominate players to the All-Area team, and 11 submitted nominations and nine returned ballots. In total, 11 girls made the team. Allegany's Kyra Pittman was voted Player of the Year.

For Keyser, junior infielder Alexa shoemaker — the lone unanimous selection — senior Carlie DelSignore and sophomore Charity Wolfe made the team.

Pittman and senior Samara Funk represented the Campers, and Bishop Walsh sophomores Chloe Greise and Ariana Herrera slotted on the squad.

Seniors Kym Minnich (Petersburg), Remi Hinkle (Moorefield), Taylor Bittinger (Northern) and MaKenzy Warnick (Southern) filled out the list.

Pittman, Bittinger, Shoemaker and Hinkle repeated from the 2019 All-Area first team. There was no team last year because the spring sports season was canceled due to COVID.

Alexa Shoemaker

Shoemaker rewrote just about every Keyser record in the book.

The junior clubbed a school record and area-best 16 home runs, 60 RBIs and scored 52 times on a .545 clip. She walked nearly four times as much as she struck out, 23-6.

Shoemaker had an area-best 55 hits, 12 of which were extra-base hits, and stole 14 bases. On the mound, Shoemaker (9-3) logged 66 strikeouts with a 2.42 ERA in 43.1 innings pitched with a 1.22 WHIP.

Samara Funk

One of the best defensive shortstops in the area, Funk was no slouch with her bat either, leading Allegany with a .535 batting average.

Funk's brightest moment at the dish came in the state semifinals when the senior belted a bases-clearing double in the sixth to blow open the Campers' matchup with Cambridge-South Dorchester and send them back to the title game.

In 43 at-bats, the Frostburg State signee had 23 hits, four of which were doubles and two home runs. Funk added a team-high 19 RBIs and had an on-base percentage of .600.

Kym Minnich

Petersburg finished 22-7 and advanced all the way to the West Virginia Class A state semifinals, and Minnich was its horse in the circle.

Minnich struck out 131 hitters and allowed 73 hits in 84 innings pitched for a 1.58 ERA. At the dish, the lefty batted .458 with two home runs and 21 RBIs in 48 at-bats.

Minnich was a member of the Petersburg girls basketball team that made a run to the Class AA Final Four, causing her to arrive late to the softball team, but she eventually hit her stride, no-hitting a vaunted Keyser offense, 4-0, on May 27.

Taylor Bittinger

Northern shortstop Bittinger helped Northern to a 9-8 season behind a .545 batting average and team-highs in doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs and walks.

The senior, who was All-Area first team as a sophomore, had six doubles, five triples, four homers, 20 RBIs, seven walks and just four strikeouts.

Bittinger was called upon to pitch in the circle for the Huskies' playoff game against Fort Hill after Northern lost its top pitcher. Her dedication to the team was on full display, and she rose to the challenge despite having not occupied the circle in quite some time.

Remi Hinkle

Outfielder Hinkle, like Bittinger, has been a staple in area softball since she was an underclassman, and in her senior year, Hinkle helped lead Moorefield to a 23-12 campaign.

The speedy fielder covered a lot of ground in the outfield, and she swiped 27 bases. At the plate, Hinkle had five doubles, three triples, seven home runs, 38 RBIs and 43 runs on a .450 batting average.

In the Yellow Jackets' sectional defeat to Petersburg, Hinkle starred with a two-run homer, along with Tori Humphries, who also tallied a two-RBI bomb.

Carlie DelSignore

The lead-off hitter atop Keyser's high-powered offense, DelSignore was a consistent table-setter.

With a .471 batting average, DelSignore was seemingly on base every time she approached the plate, and she equaled Shoemaker with a school-record 52 runs scored in a single season.

DelSignore displayed power, too, with team-highs 10 doubles and four triples, to go along with four home runs, 29 RBIs, 17 walks and 14 stolen bases.

Charity Wolfe

One of the few underclassmen on the list, along with the following two girls from Bishop Walsh, Keyser's Wolfe only got stronger as the season wore on.

Against then-undefeated Oak Glen in the regional finals, Wolfe pitched all eight innings and struck out 11 in the circle to set the stage for herself to hit the walk-off home run in extras.

As a pitcher, Wolfe (15-3) fanned 168 batters in 114 innings with a 1.83 ERA. Wolfe also hit six home runs and drove in 43 runs in the box, scoring 31 herself, on a .415 clip.

Ariana Herrera

It's difficult to name an official batting champ because not everybody played the same number of games due to COVID, but Herrera has as good an argument as any for the crown after batting .667 over 23 games.

The catcher boasted a .747 on-base percentage and had 40 hits, two of which left the yard.

Bishop Walsh finished the season 17-6, and Herrera was a big part of a lineup that scored at least 10 runs 15 times during the campaign.

Chloe Greise

Bishop Walsh ace Greise faced 370 batters during the 2021 season, and she struck out 121 of them to make the All-Area team as a sophomore.

The sophomore pitcher went 12-3 in the circle on a 2.3 ERA. Greise, more of a control pitcher than a power pitcher, one-hit Hampshire, and two-hit Mountain Ridge and Musselman.

MaKenzy Winegardner

Winegardner led the Southern Rams in nearly every major offensive statistical category during the 2021 season.

Winegardner had 20 hits, 15 runs, three doubles, and a home run on a .476 batting average. Jordyn Warnick prevented her from a clean sweep, hitting four homers.

Winegardner, a catcher and infielder, is playing for Rick Twigg at the Allegany College of Maryland.

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.