Editor’s note: Despite the fact the high school spring sports season in Ohio was canceled before it got started, the Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle will continue to profile area teams and athletes. Readers can approach the stories with the attitude of “What might have been.”

Replace, not rebuild. That was the motto this spring for South Range softball coach Jeff DeRose after his Raiders lost five seniors from their 2019 district championship team, which finished 20-10 and runner-up in the Northeast-8 Conference.

“We lost five seniors, but I think we could have replaced them with five freshmen without missing a beat,” DeRose said. “I wanted other teams to think we were rebuilding, but in the back of my mind I knew we weren’t, we were just replacing.”

The COVID-19 pandemic did wipe out the final season for South Range’s only seniors, Kali Dudich and Emily Protain, both of whom play first base. But the rest of the Raiders will be back in 2021 and that has DeRose, 123-63 in seven years as South Range’s coach, excited.

“We had more good candidates than the nine positions available,” DeRose said about where his team stood after three weeks of workouts before schools across Ohio were closed. “It might have gotten to where we would have had the girls platooning every other game in some spots to determine our eventual tournament lineup. Let the better player win where they are competing for a spot.

“We had just two seniors on the team this season, so we are very excited about next year.”

That is certainly the case in the pitching circle where DeRose planned to go four-deep this year with junior Bree Kohler leading the way. As a sophomore, Kohler was player of the year in the Northeast-8 Conference and first-team all-district. She also was the Raiders’ top returning hitter, with a .458 average last season and nine home runs.

“Bree would be certainly our number one pitcher,” DeRose said. “The nice thing for her this year, we had Reagan Irons backing her up last year as a freshman, but we have a couple of freshmen (Julie Stachowicz, Samantha Susany) coming in this year that are actually pretty good pitchers as well. We would have been able to give Bree a little bit of a break, but she would have been our main pitcher. Getting into the tournament she would have gotten the ball every day.

“Irons did really well as a freshman last year as the second pitcher, then, during the three weeks of practice we had this spring, she did a fantastic job again. She would have probably been my number two, but Julie and Samantha really would have been pushing her, they are really close talent-wise.”

The absence of a 2020 season certainly doesn’t help the development of young players. DeRose’s strategy to help overcome that missing season is a strong schedule in the early part of the 2021 season.

“There are a lot of times freshmen come in and they are very good on their travel teams. But freshmen are 14- and 15-year-olds and they may have been dominating travel ball going against kids their own age,” DeRose said. “Little do they know they will be pitching against 17- and 18-year-olds in high school and those girls also have been playing at a high level of travel ball. I’ve seen freshmen pitchers, including Bree, who would get hit around every now and then, kind of an eye-opener.

“So losing this year, it obviously doesn’t help us. We try to play, early in the season, the most competitive schedule we can, including on our spring trip, and hopefully, if we have to take some lumps, that’s where we would take them.”

Junior Jillian Strecansky returned as the Raiders’ catcher, but she probably would have moved to shortstop. DeRose said Kelly Szolek, another freshman, also catches.

“Jillian started the last two years at catcher, but we lost our shortstop from last year,” he said. “When we gave Jillian a break from catching last year, she would play shortstop, and she did well there. With Kelly, we would not have missed a beat behind the plate. We had thought that if no one else emerged to play shortstop, Strecansky would be there and Szolek at catcher.”

The rest of the infield was to include Dudich at first base and Irons at third, with sophomore Taylor Semesko and freshman Jamie Feren spliting time at second base. Protain also was available at first base, junior Izzy Sikora was expected to see some time at the corner positions and Susany was a possibility at shortsop.

DeRose said Stachowicz is his best first baseman, but would probably have played in the outfield.

“She cracks the lineup, it’s just a matter of finding her a spot,” he said.

The same is true of Susany who was expected to be another outfielder. Sophomore Alyssa Tracy was expected to be the starter in centerfield. Others providing depth in the outfield were Semesko and freshman Hanna Ball.

Offensively, Kohler and Strecansky were the Raiders’ top hitters. Kohler has the speed to lead off, DeRose said, but he wanted to have her lower in the order to drive in runs. Tracy probably would have been South Range’s leadoff hitter because of her speed.

Sikora, probably used as a DP, and Irons also were considered among the Raiders’ top hitters.

“Stachowicz and Susany would have been somewhere in the top six of our batting order, and don’t forget Szolek, she can hit too,” DeRose said.

Despite a number of freshmen in key roles, the Raiders expected to have another competitive season.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a learning curve for these freshmen, they are really an unbelievable class,” DeRose said. “We are missing the experience, but most of these freshmen we have, I think they could have stepped in, replacing the five seniors we lost.

“You never know, taking 18-year-olds and replacing them with 15-year-olds, but talent-wise, I’ve seen them play. I watched them play travel ball last year, practices this year, I don’t think we would have skipped a beat.”

When the pandemic caused the initial closing of schools across Ohio until the end of April, DeRose urged his players to stay in playing shape as much as possible.

“We had our last practice on that Friday. We told the girls they had to stay in shape. We weren’t going to be allowed on the school grounds, so we got every piece of equipment, every bucket, every tee, every net, and put it in the back of my truck,” he said. “I told the girls I expected then to contact me to come and pick up equipment to work out during the three weeks, because when we got back, we had to be in shape.

“We fully expected to get back and play. In fact, the third week we were out, before the governor extended the school shutdown, I had sent everybody a workout program. I said if you haven’t been working out this is what we are going to be doing when we get back to practice the following Monday. Then, wouldn’t you know it, two hours later they announced the schools were closed for the rest of the school year.”