Fresh off a state tournament appearance, the Warrenton Lady Warriors are looking to continue their success on the softball diamond this season. 

Warrenton returns all but one starter from last season’s state qualifying team. The Lady Warriors earned a pair of walkoff wins in the district championship game and the state tournament quarterfinals to earn a trip to Springfield for the first time since 2016. 

“Since a lot of the girls are younger, it really helps drive that we could make this a long lasting legacy since we had a lot of the younger girls helping us out last year going all the way to Springfield,” Warrenton senior Samantha Eskew said. 

Among Warrenton’s returning starters is Kylie Witthaus, who shined both on the mound and at the plate last season. Witthaus finished the season with a 1.42 ERA and over 300 strikeouts. She also led the Lady Warriors offensively, with a .511 batting average, six home runs and 23 RBIs. 

Warrenton also returns a trio of sophomores who started as freshman for the Lady Warriors. Warrenton Head Coach Chad Berrey said Caydynce Haverfield, Audrey Lanzone and Makayla Witthaus are coming off strong summer seasons with their Select teams. Junior Kiera Daniel also returns for the Lady Warriors this season. She led Warrenton with 22 runs scored. 

“We have a lot of returners this year and a lot of them are still super young,” Eskew said. “So that definitely helps keeping us all together and helping fit these new pieces where they need to go.”

Berrey said that while there are clear advantages to last season’s state tournament experience, there are also challenges. Expectations for the Lady Warriors were low last season and they exceeded expectations towards the end of the season, Berrey said. 

“I think the pressure is on,” Berrey said. “I think teams get up for us more this year. So the girls are going to have to take that into account. As soon as they step on the field off the bus, we got to know that we’re going to get their number one and it’s going to be a battle every game.”

Berrey thinks the Lady Warriors’ confidence of finishing among the top four teams in Class 4 will drive some of their confidence and success this season. 

Despite the Lady Warriors bringing in a strong amount of experience at the varsity level, they are still a young team, Berrey stressed. They have six freshmen and seven sophomores. Berrey is excited about the freshmen class, which he said brings diversity on the mound with two new pitchers. Berrey expects freshman Paige Campbell to catch some varsity innings and play some infield for Warrenton. 

With a strong number of underclassmen, Berrey will depend on his five seniors to lead the Lady Warriors on the softball diamond this season. This is the first season Berrey is not utilizing a format of having a leader at each of the junior and senior levels, but is opting for a group of seniors to lead Warrenton this season. 

“They know what to expect before we can even say it. So we’re kind of giving them the reins to lead the program,” Berrey said. 

Warrenton will open the season at the Union Tournament Friday and Saturday.