As the Lady Cards start off their season, senior, Olivia Lehman thinks they will have the best season yet, “We are all bonding and working well together. we all come and give one hundred percent to work towards our goals.” The Lady Cards started their softball season off with a scrimmage against the Schuylkill Haven Lady Hurricanes. The Lady Hurricanes started off the scrimmage with batting. Olivia Lehman, senior, started off pitching for the Lady Cards. Olivia struck two of the first three batters out, while Casey Kershner made the play in right field to get the other out. Kate Rittenbaugh went to bat first for the Lady Cards. Rittenbaugh hit for a single. Trisha Kopinetz batted second but was hit by a pitch putting Rittenbaugh on second base and Amanda Schaffer coming into pinch run. Rittenbaugh and Schaffer both stole, putting them on second and third base. Olivia Lehman grounded out to shortstop for the first out of the inning but hit Rittenbaugh in to score. Meghan Wolfe had hit the ball over into right field scoring Schaffer. Avery Nagle had also gotten a double over third base to score Meghan. Nagle had stolen third base. Maura Lehman hit a line drive to the shortstop but it was dropped. After Marua stoke both second and third base, Kamryn Stine was hit by a pitch. Kamryn Stine stole second base, while Casey Kershner was at bat. Kershner bunted the ball so Marua could score. Kershner was thrown out at first as Kam advanced to third base. Katrina Hiester hit the ball to the first base to get the last out of the first inning. At the end of the first inning the score was Lady Cards 5 – Lady Hurricanes 0.

The Lady Hurricanes started off the second inning with the first batter being walked. The next batter got a base hit into the outfield. With runners on first and second, the next batter bunted but was thrown out at first. With the runner now on second and third, the next two Lady Hurricanes batters were struck out by Olivia Lehman to end the top of the inning. As the Lady Cards being to bat, Rittenbaugh was up to bat once again. She was hit by a pitch. Kopinetz then hit the ball to shortstop but was safe at first and Autumn Behrent became the pinch runner. Rittenbaugh advanced to second base. Olivia Lehman hit the ball to left field. Kate had scored and Behrent was on second base. Izzy Turner became the pinch runner for Olivia. Meghan Wolfe hit a double to score Behrent and Turner. Avery Nagle then hit a line drive over the shortstop to get a double and score Meghan. Nagle stole third before Maura hit a shallow fly ball that was caught by the Lady Hurricanes left fielder. Kamryn Stine hit a line drive back to the pitcher and was thrown out but Nagle had scored. Casey Kershner also hit the ball to the pitcher but was called safe at first. She then stole second when Amanda Schaffer was pinch hitting for Katrina Heister. Schaffer had swung her bat but the ball had hit her hand. Heister had to come back out and hit again because Schaffer had gotten hurt. Heister had ended the inning with a hit to the third basemen but was thrown out. The second inning ended with a score of 10-0, with the Lady Cards leading the Lady Hurricanes.

As the third inning started, Olivia Lehman struck out the first two batters out. Katrina Heister caught the other batters hit to get the third out. The Lady Cards began hitting again. Rittenbaugh hit a single and stole both second and third base. Kopinetz also hit a single. Olivia hit a deep ball into left-center field. She got a triple and both Rittenbaugh and Kopinetz scored. Meghan Wolfe hit a single. Avery Nagle bunted to get a single but Meghan was thrown out at third base. Nagle stole second and third base before hit a ground ball to first base to get out. Kamryn Stine hit a single into the outfield to score Nagle. Casey Kershner hit a ground ball to third base and was throw out at first to end the inning with a score of 14-0. The fourth inning was when both coaches decided to make changes to the fielders and batters. The coaches also decided that the Lady Hurricanes will start with a base runner on first and second. The first batter was struck out. The next batter would get a base hit and score a runner. Following that would be a double and two more runs scored. The next two batters got out. The Lady Cards started with no runners on base but made many changes to the lineup. Autumn Behrent, pinch hitting for Katrina, hit a single. Rittenbaugh followed that with a single too. Kopinetz hit a double scoring both Behrent and Rittenbaugh. Faith Wolff pinch ran for Kopinetz and stole third. Olivia hit a single as well to score Faith. Izzy Langkam had came in to pinch run for Olivia. Haylie Keiser pinch hit for Meghan Wolfe. She hit a single but Izzy Langkam was thrown out at second. Haylie then stole second. Avery Nagle advanced Haylie to third with a groundout to the first baseman, but Maura Lehman had also grounded out to the second baseman. The end of the fourth inning the score was 17-3 with the Lady Cards in the lead.

During the fifth inning, the Lady Hurricanes started with a runner on first. The base runner stole second base. The first batter bunted to advance the runner to third base. The first batter was thrown out at first. The next batter was struck out by Meghan Wolfe, who began pitching for Olivia Lehman. The next Lady Hurricanes batter grounded out to Izzy Turner at second base.The Lady Cards began the bottom of the fifth inning with no runners on and with a walk by Kamryn Stine. Case Kershner hit the ball over the third baseman’s head to advance Stine to second. Baylie Doreson had a single up the middle to score both Stine and Kershner. Bailey then stole third base, before Kate Rittenbaugh had a hit into right field for a single. Bailey had scored off of Rittenbaugh’s hit. As Rittenbaugh stole second, Savannah Low had hit a deep fly ball turning into a single and scoring Rittenbaugh. Izzy Turner got the first out of the inning with a line drive catch to the third baseman. Meghan Wolfe also had a fly ball caught by the Hurricanes left fielder. To end the inning, Avery Nagle grounded out to the second baseman. At the end of the fifth inning, the Lady Cards were leading 21-3. The sixth inning was a short inning for both teams. The Lady Hurricanes three outs were all flyouts. The Lady Cards had few hits in this inning. Kamryn Stine grounded out to third base. Avery Nagle hit a fly ball to center but it was caught. Maura Lehman then with a double and stole third. Followed by Abby Keiser short fly all into center field for a single, while Maura scored. Alera Aungst had a fly ball into left field for a single. Katrina Heister had gotten walked but Faith wolff had grounded out to second base. At the end of the sixth inning, the score was 22-3, with the Lady Cards leading. The Lady Hurricanes were the only team to bat in the seventh inning. The first batter grounded out to Haylie Keiser at second base. The next batter got out also to a ground out to Alera Augnst pitching. Alera Aungst then struck out the last batter of the scrimmage. The Lady Cards would show many promising signs in their first scrimmage of the season. “I think we performed pretty well. We definitely have a few things to work on but that is expected. We had the same energy and work ethic we have had in the past few seasons. This scrimmage was needed to see what we could improve on,” said Trisha Kopinetz, senior.