Parkersburg softball coach Jason Roberts, left, speaks with Big Red baserunner Lilly Boice in the first inning of Wednesday’s 13-1 loss to Wheeling Park at Worthington Softball Fields in Parkersburg. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

PARKERSBURG — Wheeling Park’s success at the plate came as a bit of surprise to the Parkersburg coaching staff.

Wednesday afternoon at Worthington Softball Fields, all 10 individuals who batted for the Patriots contributed at least one hit to the team’s 14-hit attack as the Big Reds suffered a 13-1 loss in five innings.

“No, I didn’t expect this out of Wheeling Park,” PHS coach Jason Roberts said. “Looking at their scores from the past few games, I didn’t think they would put up that many runs. But I also thought we would put up a bunch of runs. Neither one of them happened.”

The youth of PHS (2-4), which started six freshmen and two sophomores, reared its ugly head with missed opportunities in the early going. On the nine plate appearances with runners in scoring position, the Big Reds managed just one run over the first three innings.

Since the second game of the season, PHS has not surpassed three runs in any of its last three games.

“These girls are way better players than we showed today and last night — we don’t know what’s wrong with them,” Roberts said. “With Wheeling Park, I thought we would compete with them a lot better and it just didn’t happen.

“They are young and we are trying to teach them to just move on to the next game. Hopefully by the end of the year they will learn to make it work.”

Sophomore pitcher Kylie Conley suffered the loss after allowing 13 runs on 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings over two different stints during the ballgame. First-year varsity member Nicole Holbert tossed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit in the process.

Wheeling Park’s production on offense surprised coach Pat Durkin to an extent after the Patriots didn’t record their first hit until the bottom of the seventh inning in a 4-3 win over Brooke the previous night.

“We started doing some tee work, trying to hit line drives and staying back on the ball,” Durkin said. “Their pitcher put the ball in there. Everybody hit from top to bottom, so that was real nice.”

After a scoreless first inning, Wheeling Park had a breakout second inning. The Patriots sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs on eight hits.. The only Wheeling Park extra base hit of the game — Mary Darrow’s RBI double highlighted the outburst.

Wheeling Park tacked on another run in the third inning to increase the lead to 7-0.

The Big Reds’ lone run scored in home half of the third inning. Lilly Boice reached safely on a fielder’s choice, stole second (her second stolen base of the game) and crossed home plate two batters later on Conley’s RBI double.

The mercy rule came into play when Wheeling Park struck for another six runs in the fifth inning. Bryn Ernest, who struck out twice while going hitless in her first three at-bats, supplied the lumber with a two-run single.

Wheeling Park starting pitcher Amber Thompson took care of the rest in the bottom of the fifth, striking out the final two hitters of the game as part of the seven she whiffed in a complete-game effort. PHS batted just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Of PHS’ six hits, Madison Marks went 2-for-3.

“I would like to know Amber’s percentage of strikes — we keep track of that,” Durkin said. “She was pretty solid tonight.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com