Staff file photo / Preston Byers South Range’s Anna Aey rounds second base after hitting a home run during a game vs. Lakeview in Cortland on March 30.

Two weeks into the high school softball season, South Range, annually among the Mahoning Valley’s best teams, had won just three of its first seven games. A little over three weeks in, the Raiders were still sitting at 6-6 on the year.

But head coach Jeff DeRose knew that the record did not tell the team’s whole story.

“We lost three games down in Myrtle [Beach]. Two of them were extra innings. I mean, it could have gone either way,” DeRose said. “So I wouldn’t put much clout into the 6-6 record at the one time.”

After overseeing multiple conference championships and deep playoff runs, DeRose was right to believe that South Range was much better than its record would indicate. The same could still be true, even though the Raiders are now 14-6, having won each of their last eight games.

Since back-to-back losses to Walsh Jesuit and Canfield, South Range has earned one-run victories against Tallmadge, Mohawk (Pa.) and Perrysburg, in addition to decisively defeating Poland twice, Hubbard, Elyria Catholic and Struthers.

“I’m happy with the way the season’s gone so far,” DeRose said. “I’m very happy with the way we’re playing now because we use those early games to figure personnel out. Position-wise, we have five pitchers; [we’ve figured out] who are our top two or three pitchers.”

Like many teams, the Raiders purposefully made their schedule difficult. DeRose said his team’s slate to this point is the second-toughest in Division V, which, according to MaxPreps, is accurate. At 9.3 in the website’s calculation, South Range’s strength of schedule is tied with Archbold and only behind Wheelersburg.

As a result of the deliberately stacked deck, losses are almost inevitable. And to DeRose, losses like the 4-2 defeat vs. Walsh Jesuit on April 15 are infinitely more valuable than lopsided wins.

“Jesuit is a Division II school. We’re Division V. They are seeded second in the state, and we lost 4-2,” DeRose said. “And I use that game as an example – I would rather have this game, this 4-2 loss, than beat Struthers 21-0, because it doesn’t do you any good to play a team that’s not going to prepare you for that game you need to win. … When you lose a 4-2 game to a damn good team and you make no errors and the pitching is good, you pump them up and say, ‘Hey, if there’s such a thing as a great loss, that’s a great loss.'”

The schedule hasn’t been the only reason the Raiders have rattled off eight straight; they’re also just getting better.

DeRose has valued hitters like “lightning-fast” Gabby Spooner, who leads the team in batting average, and Solena DeJesus, the Raiders’ center fielder who has turned her season around after a cold start.

“(DeJesus) actually got her first hit, and it was a crappy bloop single, our fourth game of the year. And she looked at me, she goes, ‘Now I finally have an average.’ Well, after we got back from Myrtle, she’s batting like .650,” DeRose said.

Defensively, the Raiders have relied on Anna Aey, who has also proven her defensive flexibility during her four-year career, as well as the middle-infield sibling duo of Keira and Sophia Brogan, who DeRose said have turned a pair of “legitimate” double plays this season.

“They’re unbelievable,” DeRose said. “I feel like they practice that stuff at home.”

In the circle, the Raiders largely rely on the one-two pitching punch of senior Ashley Rupert and freshman Cameryn Crepage.

Unlike most pitchers, though, Rupert is largely unable to go every day due to a floating rib and nerve damage in her abdomen. She is effectively on a pitch count, DeRose said, and can only pitch after a day of rest.

If he follows the day-on, day-off pattern with Rupert, DeRose will start the senior on Monday and then Wednesday in what very well may be an NE8 title decider.

South Range has three league games scheduled for next week, and with an 8-1 conference record, wins in the first two games – at home vs. Hubbard on Monday and at Niles on Tuesday – would increase the stakes of the Raiders’ rematch vs. Lakeview in Beaver Township on Wednesday.

On March 30, during the first week of the season, the Bulldogs defeated South Range 11-8, handing the Raiders their only NE8 loss of the year. The defending conference champion, Lakeview remains unbeaten in the league and can clinch at least a share of this year’s title with wins against Poland and Girard. But a win vs. the Raiders may prove to be the only way to an outright title.

“I said, if you can win those two games, then you’re going to be playing for a tie for the league championship on Wednesday against Lakeview,” DeRose said. “And the demeanor, the body language that I noticed when I said that, they were excited. They know what’s in front of them.”

DeRose expects this time around against Lakeview to be quite a bit different than when they last played. Not only will the “10th man” be in effect for the Raiders at home, but DeRose believes that the team the Bulldogs encountered more than a month ago in Cortland is not really the same one they’ll face Wednesday.

“Having Ashley come in and throw four innings or so, getting up to 60 or so pitches, and bringing Cameryn Crepage in – Lakeview didn’t see that yet,” DeRose said. “So hopefully we can keep them off balance with a pitcher that’s not going to dominate you by throwing the ball by you, but she can certainly spin the ball, keep you off balance. And then you bring in somebody else who throws considerably harder than Ashley, and hopefully mess them up a little bit.

“We have eight starters that have been there and have the experience to play big games. We just got to keep going. We get so damn close every year, and we just got to be able to finish it.”