After a year hiatus, softball is back at Wellsville-Middletown High School this fall.

The Tigers will field a softball team for the first time since the 2022 season as they have 16 players on their squad. They are coached by Alex Thull, who also heads the W-M baseball team.

“This is my first time coaching a girls sport in 15 years,” Thull said. “I should have been doing this a long time ago. Girls have this desire to be as good as they can and they’re so willing to listen and take what you say and apply it.”

W-M will begin its season on Sept. 2 with a home game against Community R-6, which will be 705 days since the last time the Tigers took the softball field. The program’s last game was on Sept. 27, 2022 against Montgomery County.

Community R-6 won 22 games last year, doubling its win total from the year before.

“R-6 is one of those schools that just perennially has a lot of girls with a lot of culture,” Thull said. “They always have a good team. Our girls wanted it bad. That’s always a crosstown rivalry. They (R-6) are always seen as the little sister in that rivalry. We’re going to have to work pretty hard. It’s a short turnaround from practice No. 1 on through. We feel like we’re getting there and we’re starting to figure out our lineups. The girls are wanting to do well. Half of the battle is getting them to want to be here. They push every day.”

Two years ago, the Tigers won three games. They snapped a 52-game losing streak after beating Marion County in a road game. After losing to Montgomery County, it forfeited the rest of the season because it didn’t have a full roster.

This year, the Tigers have six seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen.

“I had all of these girls for the most part in weights for multiple years, so they’re used to me,” Thull said. “They really wanted me to take over the program because they thought that would be the best. It’s been going great. There’s pride in the program. They’re excited and I’m excited. They’re just doing really good. I’m super happy with them.”

Alyssa Beach, Della Gosseen, Indica Scott, Maddi Poage, Alivia Stewart and Kaitlyn Rawls make up the senior class. Beach, Scott, Poage and Stewart played on the 2022 team. Senior Hallie Guzy, who pitched for W-M in her freshman and sophomore seasons, is the team’s manager.

Thull said the seniors were determined to bring softball back to W-M this year.

“I think they all came together and said they need to do this,” the coach said. “This is what they wanted for their senior year. They have taken ownership in it. Everyone of these girls stepped up and started to become leaders and good role models for the younger girls. It made all of the difference.”

The other players are juniors Brooke Stroup and Lorelei Smith, sophomores Aubrey Harmon, Jenna Collins, Elly Cash and Legend Davis and freshmen Addison Nation, Tessa Freeman, Paige Brashear and Jade Thompson. Stroup played on the 2022 team.

Thull has high hopes for Freeman, who will be the Tigers’ catcher.

“She’s young, but she’s super excited,” Thull said. “She has played it before on some teams. She needs time to develop and I think she will be one of the premier players to come out of the school the next few years when she’s a junior and senior.”

Thull said he was thrilled with his team’s first practice on Aug. 12.

“Mistakes were made at a minimum,” he said. “We kept it pretty basic. We worked rudimentary drills. We did a lot of throwing stuff. We just got the girls used to the practice schedule, being out here for two and a half hours and working. They did really well. The older girls set the tone. We have a good group of seniors and Brooke is a great leader as a junior. They pushed each other and the younger girls picked up on that.”

Thull said even though softball hasn’t been played at W-M for a year, most of the players continued to stay active in other sports.

“They lifted harder than anybody I ever had,” he said. “We worked all summer long. They came in all of June. They came in August. We put in the work. There are some spots where we’re inexperienced, but they’re also spots where I feel like we have some of the better talent in the area at the same token.”