By AARON PETCHAL

For The Intelligencer

WELLSBURG — The Brooke softball team is looking to build off last season’s success.

The Bruins finished last season with a record of 16-8, but they were unable to make it out of the sectional tournament as Wheeling Park defeated Brooke, 1-0, in the West Virginia Class AAA Region 1 Section 1 Final at Brooke.

“Last year was really weird,” Brooke head coach Jim DiCarlo said. “We started late. The West Virginia governor changed the start of the season. We started late. We were quarantined twice. We missed 18 of 20 practice days before our first game. We were off for eight days, we came back for two and then we were quarantined again.”

Brooke lost three players to graduation – Maleaha Misch (pitcher/shortstop), Felicty Eli (outfield/catcher) and Lizzie Foresha (outfield/second base).

Emilee Knorr (third base/outfield) is the lone senior on the roster this season. She batted .358 with a .411 on-base percentage. Knorr scored 14 runs.

The four juniors are Kameryn Eckles (outfield), Angelina Lippoli (first base/outfield), Landry Bone (infield/pitcher) and Destiny Hannahs (infield).

Eckles – a slapper – hit .341 lasts eason with an on-base percentage of .396. She also scored 14 runs.

Like Misch, Lippoli was named honorable-mention all-state. Lippoli produced 30 hits – including 12 doubles – she batted .441 and she recorded 18 RBI. Lippoli tallied 17 runs on the season.

Bone transferred to Brooke after spending her first two seasons at Madonna. Last season, Bone was named First Team All-State and First Team All-OVAC. Bone was the Blue Dons’ ace.

The sophomores are Maddy Brown (catcher/infield), Lexie Foresha (pitcher/infield), Baylei Jones (pitcher/outfield), Winter McQuiston (outfield), Hailey Moore (infield/catcher) and newcomer Rylee Schwertfeger (infield/outfield).

The two freshmen – Emilee McKinney (infield/catcher) and Jordyn Beatty (infield) – are vying for time on the varsity this season.

“Our goals are always the same,” DiCarlo said. “We want to develop daily, and we want to get better fundamentally. We want to make the OVAC playoffs and have a chance to win it, and we want to be successful come tournament time.”

Longtime assistants Bill Davis and John Giannamore will once again be by DiCarlo’s side this season.

Also assisting DiCarlo this season are Tom Diserio, Rick Hayman and Tony Neff.