Yes, there's plenty of softball to be played but Cumberland Valley has earned the right to be called the best team in the Mid-Penn Conference.
Not just the Commonwealth Division, but the overall league. One could argue that if you're the best in the Commonwealth you're the best in the Mid-Penn as well, but there have been other years when AAA teams and even an AA team or two have been just as good as their AAAA counterparts.
For the moment, we're talking only the Mid-Penn here. CV, for example, lost to Central York and Central York was pounded by Dallastown. District playoffs will settle any speculation comparative scores may cause.
CV is hot. The Eagles (11-1) can pitch, hit, throw and catch that green ball. Pitcher Kayla Sullenberger is 10-1. Not necessarily overpowering but certainly quick enough, she moves the ball around and keeps it low. With a surgically repaired shoulder, she said last week it sometimes takes awhile to get loose – even during the game.
"When we hit for awhile, it kind of takes me awhile to get loose and it takes one batter to get in the groove and working pitches inside and out,'' she said.
"I think she tried to get a little too fine at times, but that's her, she wants to get better and better each game,'' CV coach Gregg Williams said after CV defeated 8-2 Chambersburg 6-0 last week. "A lot of times on the bus ride home, the talk is, 'how can I get better?' She always wants to get better.
"I'm sure she expects more from herself and that's a good thing.''
Teammates Jill Arnoso (25-for-44, .568), Cara Holtzman (18-for-42, .429), Rachel Mumma (21-for-42, .500) and Summer Keefer (.459) pace a patient and potent hitting attack.
"I'm only surprised when I look back at the stats and see how many hits we had,'' Williams said. "We try to just go for good at-bats and we probably had the most quality at-bats as we've had in any game (against Chambersburg).
"I'm really proud of them for that. We just battled and we hung in there and there were pitches we thought were balls that we're just not gonna swing at. We're very disciplined at the plate.''
WILDCATS CAN HIT, TOO: Mechanicsburg at 8-3 is trying to keep pace with unbeaten Lower Dauphin in the Keystone Division. This team is young but not too young to be aggressive at the plate.
Freshman Taylor Clark has four home runs already and is 21-for-38 for a .526 average, according to team stats submitted by coach Gail Hiestand. Alyssa Dietz is hitting .474 and Erica Molovich is at .500.
Molovich brought an 11-game hitting streak into this season from her freshman year and hit safely in Mechanicsburg's first 10 games this season before being held hitless against Palmyra on Thursday.
"She didn't know it was going on,'' Hiestand said about the streak that stopped at an impressive 21 games.
INFIELD HITS: CD East second baseman Aspen Colegrove had an impressive 3-for-4 performance at the plate against Red Land. She showed excellent speed while legging out a leadoff triple. She also tracked down four popups during East's victory over the Patriots.
IN-SCHOOL RIVALS: State College coach Rick Hall and Mifflin County coach Jack McCurdy both are employees of the State College Area School District. Both teams are new to the Mid-Penn this year and Mifflin County has won six straight after a season-opening loss to Cumberland Valley on a winter-like April 2 afternoon. Both will compete in the District 6 playoffs in the postseason.
OTHER NUMBERS: Here are a few other stats reported by coaches. Courtney Keefer is batting .629 and has two homers for Northern, and Angie Mikos is hitting at a .514 clip and has eight doubles. Sam Miller has 10 RBI and a .486 batting average, according to coach Jess Rhoads. Northern pitcher Shanon Ward has a 2.60 earned run average and has recorded 61 strikeouts thus far. ... Greenwood's Amy Heggenstaller has a .357 average. ... Lebanon is 0-11 and hasn't been closer than 12 runs in any game. When you encounter something like that, you can only get stronger as a person while dealing with defeat. And isn't that what all high school sports are about?
COMING UP: Newport travels to Upper Dauphin on Monday for a key Tri-Valley League game while Northern is at Mechanicsburg and Chambersburg comes up to Central Dauphin. ... A couple of Colonial Division showdowns occur on Tuesday as Greencastle heads to James Buchanan and Waynesboro is at Shippensburg. ... CV starts the second half of its season with a trip to Lewistown to face second-place Mifflin County on Wednesday.