The world keeps spinning for Seneca Valley softball ace Lexie Hames.
Since a pair of losses to Pine-Richland during a five-day span in mid-April, the fire-balling, senior right-hander won her fourth straight decision Monday for the Class 6A second-ranked Raiders. This one was a one-hitter against previously unbeaten and top-ranked Hempfield as host Seneca Valley prevailed 2-1.
And wouldn’t you know it: The Spartans’ lone run came courtesy of Hames’ fifth-inning throwing error to first base.
The blunder, on Abigail Magill’s comebacker and with Seneca Valley clinging to a 2-0 lead, allowed Raegan Reamer, who drew the only walk against the Clemson commit, to score.
“Earlier in the season, I did the same thing,” Hames said. “I don’t get many hit back to me.”
Hempfield (14-1, 10-1 Section 1-6A) managed just four baserunners and hit only one ball out of the infield.
“We know Lexie is a great pitcher, but I think she’s always even better than normal at home,” Hempfield coach Tina Madison said. “We tried shortening up and hitting our pitch, but … Hames’ dominance was overwhelming.”
The WPIAL’s first athlete in six years last season to win the Gatorade Pennsylvania Softball Player of the Year Award, Hames was masterful in hurling a one-hitter and striking out 17 batters.
All swinging.
She opened the game by whiffing the first 11 Spartans.
“She gets up for games like this,” said Hames’ mother, Seneca Valley coach Marlesse Hames, herself a former Raiders softball star. “She loves that competitiveness. And I always love playing Hempfield, because both of us are such good-caliber teams. It’s a fun game to watch.”
Hames wasn’t perfect — nobody is, she agreed — in outdueling Hempfield’s Riley Miller, who yielded four hits, struck out five and walked one unintentionally and three intentionally, all to leadoff batter Hames, Seneca Valley’s best hitter.
“We knew they were going to walk Lexie, so we’ve really been working on getting other girls going,” Marlesse Hames said. “They’ve been really stepping up and producing behind Lexie. And our catcher, Lauren Folino, works her butt off behind that plate. She gets a lot of calls for us.”
Seneca Valley (10-2, 12-2) scored single runs in the second and third innings against Miller, a senior right-hander who is headed to Kent State next season.
The Raiders took a 1-0 lead in the second, when Bella Gross led off with a double and scored on Lauren Folino’s single.
They made it 2-0 in the third. With one out, Neve Miller singled off Riley’s glove, advanced to second on Gross’ groundout and moved to third on a wild pitch by Miller before scoring on Hempfield catcher Ella Berkebile’s errant pickoff attempt.
“They scored that second one on an error,” Madison said. “Maybe it would’ve been 1-1, and we’d still be playing. You never know. It’s very humbling. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to lose before the playoffs. It makes us a little bit hungry and shows we need to work harder.”
Lauren Howard’s infield single in the fourth inning accounted for Hempfield’s only hit, but she was caught stealing to end the inning.
The Spartans threatened to score in the first, despite Hames logging a rare four-strikeout inning.
Allison Cervola, Hempfield’s second batter, reached on a wild pitch after striking out, then stole second and moved to third on another wild pitch by Hames. But Hames went on to fan Howard and Berkebile and keep the Spartans off the board.
Howard hit Hempfield’s only ball to the outfield, driving a pitch to the warning track in center field for an out.
For Hames, a glance now and then at her glove keeps things in perspective.
“My best quote this season is, ‘Be You.’ I have it written on my glove,” she said. “Another one that I like is, ‘The World Keeps Spinning.’ You accept what comes along, and you learn from it.”
Her latest victory was as satisfying as it gets so far. After all, she said, Hempfield is the standard, with its multiple PIAA championships and numerous Division I recruits.
But Seneca Valley has won the WPIAL Class 6A title twice in the past three years.
“I feel like, sometimes, we’re an underdog,” she said. “When you compare resumes (with Hempfield), they’re up to six Division I commits, and you see our team only has one. The postseason is kind of new for us. We didn’t even make it not long ago. Hempfield’s tradition compared to Seneca Valley’s is different. That’s a great team, top to bottom. If you make a mistake, someone will crush one over the fence and make you pay for it.”
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Hames is looking forward to more of the same sort of tough, gritty afternoons, like this one, from now until the end of the season, her last before heading to college and the formidable ACC, where at Clemson, she’ll likely be facing Hempfield’s Howard, a Virginia commit.
Until then, they’ll see each other at least once more this year. These two teams had their first regular-season meeting postponed three times this month and will attempt to play again May 6 at Hempfield.
Hames plans on staying calm.
“Be You,” she reminded herself again. “The ball is going to be in my hand the next game.”
“I’ve found if I’m trying to give that extra ‘oomph,’ I tend to give less,” she said. “If I’m too focused on that, the ball is going to go slower and spin less. I can’t throw away hours and hours of practice. I just want to trust my preparation, calm down, trust my team, relax.
“It’s a lot easier to spin the ball, move my fingers, move my wrist, move my arm, all that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of parts that go into it and they work a lot better if you’re calm, if you’re relaxed.”
For Hames, the world keeps spinning.