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ST. MARYS — With the Cali Masters era in the books, the St. Marys softball team seeks to establish a new identity which Blue Devils tradition is built upon.

Masters, a lefty pitcher who was named as a first-team, all-stater four times is making her presence felt at the University of Charleston. Meanwhile, her alma mater finds themself back in Class A after losing to Oak Glen in the Class AA regionals last season.

“Cali was a huge part of our success and why St. Marys softball has definitely made a name for themself the last five years,” St. Marys coach Lacy Riggs said. “There has been a lot of talent surrounding her as well.”

Stepping into the circle as the primary pitcher for this year’s club is the coach’s daughter, senior Autumn Mossor. The Blue Devils also have a pair of freshmen – one of those being Maddison Lambert – waiting in the wings.

“It will definitely be hard to replace Cali – Autumn just needs to realize to be herself,” Riggs said. “Some of the people she looks up to have conveyed that same message and I’ve seen a big bump in her confidence.

“This year, we expect more contact from other teams. Our success may look different, but it doesn’t mean we won’t be successful.”

A total of four seniors return to the program, including Brylee McGrady at catcher. McGrady is also a vacuum cleaner at third base.

“Brylee and Autumn are best friends and adds a good dimension for a catcher-pitcher relationship and they trust one another, which is a huge bonus for us.”

A lot of moving parts best describes how the infield will shape up once St. Marys gets deeper into the schedule. Depending on who is starting on the mound, Lambert and sophomore Emmalee Mossor will occupy first base.

At second base, junior Jayla Cox will be backed up by freshman Kinley Thomas. At shortstop, sophomore Landrey Riggs is the mainstay with senior Alyssa Windland seeing time when she is not starting in center field.

The corner positions are interchangeable. Sophomore Adaleigh McGrady joins Brylee McGrady as possible candidates at third base.

In the outfield, the list of possible starters include senior Mia Christensen, Adaleigh McGrady, Thomas and Lambert.

“As far as our offense, I feel our hitters one through eight are very strong,” Riggs said.

Riggs praised the leadership her four seniors are providing. Brylee McGrady and Windland are the vocal leaders, while Christensen and Mossor are somewhat more quiet in the manner in which they lead.

“This may be the best leadership I’ve seen from my seniors that I’veever had,” Riggs said. “With our team this year, that’s what we need.”

Riggs has Wheeling Central, Ritchie County and Wahama among others on her radar in the Blue Devils’ postseason pursuit. The state field increased to eight teams for each class this season. The double-elimination format remains intact.

“100%, it’s there for the taking for us,” Riggs said.

BASEBALL

With a nationally acclaimed facility, St. Marys is seeking bigger and better things from the baseball program under coach Terry Nichols.

This past December, Nichols and St. Marys athletic director Howard Meeks attended an event in Fla. hosted by the National High School Baseball Association and learned the FieldTurf baseball facility on their campus was selected as the National Field of the Year.

“Someone called us and told us we had won our region, and we were in the running for the national award – it was a nice way for Pleasants County to be recognized,” Nichols said.

Nichols recalls sitting at a table with the recently inducted Hall of Fame pitcher Billy Wagner.

“We sat with Billy Wagner – he was a hoot,” Nichols said.

As for the upcoming season, the Blue Devils transition to Class A and with the number of returning letterwinners there is a sense of excitement in the dugout.

“We probably had the third best record of all the teams that are now in our regional,” said Nichols. “Webster County made it to the state tournament and we beat them last year. Gilmer County made it to state and they beat us like 3-1.”

Senior Casey Burkhammer becomes the ace pitcher of the staff. He was selected to the Little Kanawha Conference first team after striking out 96 batters over 55 1/2 innings while posting a 5-2 record.

Following in the No. 2 slot in the rotation is junior Cayden Barnard, who threw some 36 innings a year ago.

“Cayden is much bigger and stronger, and throws strikes,” Nichols said. “I’m looking forward to having him on the mound.”

A pet peeve for Nichols is pitchers unable to throw strikes. The rest of the staff, which includes Daniel Wunland, Kyle Bullman, Liam Davis, Ayden Powell and Trevor Maley, has honed in on his message.

“Our record was 9-19-1 because the young kids didn’t throw strikes,” Nichols said. “We also played a Class AA schedule. We’re not playing all Class AA schools this year, so that helps.”

The outfield has received an uptick from last season. Nichols plans to start Davis in left field, Bullman in center and Winland in right. Bullman has well above average speed and showed it on the basepaths by stealing a team-high 42 bases as a freshman.

“All three get a very good break on the ball,” Nichols said. “Liam is one of the best at knowing where it is going, and getting to it.”

As for the infield, Burkhammer will play shortstop when he doesn’t pitch. Same for Barnard at first base. Maley is tops on the depth chart at second base, while Powell and Shane Deweese will share the load at third base.

Offensively, the St. Marys approach is to create chaos on the basepaths. Last season, Blue Devil basestealers were successful 92.5% (124-of-134) of the time.

At the plate, Barnard is the leading returning hitter at .330. Burkhammer (.280) and Winland (.270) also ranked atop the Blue Devil charts.

St. Marys is still awaiting word on the status of junior Jeremiah DeMoss, who underwent knee surgery following the end of the football season. DeMoss, who threw a no-hitter as a freshman, would provide depth to the pitching staff should he receive clearance at some point this season.

For now, St.Marys will embrace the regular season without his presence.

“Larry Johnson and Jason Satterfield are my assistants – I am blessed to have those two beside me,” Nichols said. “The kids have put in the work and I’m sure we will get better as we go.”

TRACK

Girls

The window of opportunity exists for the St. Marys girls track program.

The Blue Devils graduated one state contributor off a team which placed second at the Class A state meet. State champion Doddridge County bumped up to Class AA in the offseason and Wheeling Central joined Class A for the upcoming season, which creates quite the chase for a new state champion for St. Marys’ class.

“We bring back those girls from the cross country team which won a state title,” said St. Marys’ Dave Davis, who enters his third season as girls head coach. “We have all those girls coming back. We lost a couple of seniors, including our thrower and that was a big loss, but I think we can make that up in other events.

“We have a good group of girls and I’m really excited to see what we can do.”

St. Marys will score points in a variety of ways. In the sprints, Laney Watkins returns for her sophomore year after debuting as the state champion in the 400, placing fourth in the 100 and seventh in the 700. She also competed on the 4×100, which captured a state title.

Also making an immediate impact as a freshman was Avry Bennett, who joined Watkins on the 4×100, won a state title in the pole vault and placed fourth in the 300 hurdles.

Her older sister, Anna, led a host of St. Marys distance runners by placing second in the mile, fourth in the 800, competing on the first-place 4×400 relay in addition to contributing a leg on the 4×800 which placed third.

Junior Sidni Gerlach tied for sixth in the pole vault.

“We are still young,” Davis said. “We have two sophomores, two juniors and a couple of seniors. We also gained three exchange students who are running track for the first time. They bring a lot of spirit to the team. They said it is a little more running than what they expected, but they are excited to be part of the track team.”

Following a state championship basketball season for St. Marys, Davis is playing it cautious with Anna Bennett, who played through shin splints and ankle problems during the basketball season. Her presence at the track, however, remains invaluable.

“Anna, Savanna Burd and Maddie Smith are among our leaders – they lead us through drills and warmup routines we incorporate,” Davis said. “At the end of practice, they do the same thing with stretches. They lead both the girls and the boys.”

St. Marys has all the making for an impressive outcome pending what schools like Wheeling Central and Charleston Catholic bring to the table.

“Last year, I was definitely pleased with how things turned out – we won regional and that gave us momentum,” Davis said. “This year, Wheeling Central returns quite a bit and they will be really good. Charleston Catholic also returns a lot of girls. It will be a challenge.”

Boys

Multi-sport athletes continue to carry the St. Marys boys track team.

The Blue Devils are coming off an eighth-place showing at last year’s Class A state meet. Their strength remains to revolve around the relays, which won a state title in the 4×400 and turned in top 4 finishes in four others.

“Our numbers are lower this year, so we are going to progress through this season in a positive manner to where, hopefully, we will be successful for the state meet,” St. Marys coach Steven Nutter said. “We are bringing them along slowly here early then as the year goes hopefully we can really put stuff together for the state meet and be super competitive.”

Among the top athletes returning on the boys side for St. Marys is distance runner, junior Parker Barnes, along with classmate Noah Russell who was a member of the 4×400.

St. Marys graduated 12 seniors, but coach Nutter stated one of his assistants, Trey Meeks, did some heavy recruiting throughout the high school where the Blue Devils can field a shuttle hurdle relay team.

“We have some runners who got hurt during the winter and aren’t even practicing yet,” Nutter said. “We’re hoping if those individuals can get healthy, and thankfully we have eight or nine weeks until the state meet, it gives them a little bit of time to get in shape.

“Not that they need that base to get them where they need to be, but if they are fast they are going to be fast whether they are able to get the full 12 to 13 practices in or not.”

TENNIS

On the verge of disappearing, the St. Marys tennis program has received a second life as Kelli Meeks returns to take over the team after filling the same role several years ago.

The 2011 St. Marys graduate is the youngest of four siblings. For the Meeks family, tennis is in their blood. All three girls (Kari, Krista and Kelli) were members of the St. Marys High School tennis family when their home facility was located in Belmont.

Now, the Blue Devils make the short walk from the high school to their tennis facility located on campus.

“I had the program for two years while I was an elementary counselor,” said Kelli Meeks, who now works as a high school counselor. “Susan (Travers) took it over and now I’m retaking it over. It’s exciting to be back in my old post.”

Coach Meeks always has her tennis racquet handy so she can practice with her players.

“Oh yeah, I bring my racquet – I’m their toughest competitor,”she said. “Everything so far, so good – the kids have really started to come out of their shell, just learning the basics, fundamentals and things like that.

“More than half of these players are new and have never played before. They weren’t very successful last year, so we are just hoping to win some matches this year.”

The roster of five girls and one boy includes three who return from a year ago – senior Allie Wilson and juniors Olivia Holmes and Izzy Cronin. Sophomores Autumn Barnhart and Riley Rupert and freshman Joden Lucas are first-year members.

“Having Olivia, Izzy and Allie has helped as far as knowing where to be and what to do out there,” Meeks said.

After receiving the position in June, Meeks has spent time recruiting the hallways. She said several other girls expressed interest and could possibly join the team before the season is all said and done.

“I just really want this program to grow and get it back to when I was in high school when we had full team for both boys and girls,” Meeks said. “I’m excited about getting involved with the younger kids and getting them excited. Wood County has middle school tennis and it would be exciting to have that and do clinics. If we can get the middle schoolers involved and start learning the basics at a younger age, hopefully our program will be more successful.

“When I had the program in 2017 and 2018, I was able to take a player to state. Maybe not this year, but I am hoping that will happen soon enough. That’s my ultimate goal.”

Kelli Meeks, who also has one brother (Trey), is the daughter of St. Marys athletic director Howard Meeks. When her sisters heard about her becoming head coach, they were in complete support mode. In fact, one of her sisters met her husband while both were members of the St. Marys tennis team.

“It’s been in the family to play tennis – I’m excited,” Kelli Meeks said. “My family is excited to see St. Marys tennis grow.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com