The West Central Valley softball team says goodbye to two seniors, but returns majority of talent for next year.

The two seniors leaving the Wildcat program are Jess Pieper and Stormy Baker.

Head coach Ken Cox says Pieper was the starting pitcher since her freshmen year and this year she began the season playing the infield but then, due to an injury to Emma Egger, Pieper stepped back into the pitching role.

Coach Cox talks about her willingness to finish out the season helping the team in the pitcher’s role.

“I think that her senior year, she just felt like she would come out and play with nothing on her shoulders and it proved to benefit her.”

She finished her senior season with career highs in wins with five and strikeouts with 63.  For her career, she had 175 strikeouts and 11 wins as a pitcher.

As for Baker, coach Cox couldn’t be more pleased that she wanted to come out for her senior year.  He notes that her outfield abilities improved every year she was out there, but it was also her intangibles that led to her receiving the title as one of the team captains.

“She provides a lot of leadership to the youth and the girls look up to her.  Stormy did raise her batting average a lot this year and produced a lot better hits and offense for us, along with her defense.”

Coach Cox is excited for next season to have his top three hitters back as well as a great core of players, but he adds that he will certainly miss both Pieper and Baker’s leadership from this past season.