MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After securing the program’s first state championship last season, University was well aware the 2025 campaign was one with heightened expectations.
A strong contingent of returning players, including both of the team’s top two pitchers from a year ago, were back to help the Hawks overcome having an expanded target and aid the team in its quest to repeat.
After a pair of tightly-contested victories last week against Morgantown (4-3 in nine innings and 2-0 in Game 2) to secure the Class AAAA Region I championship, UHS is headed back to South Charleston’s Little Creek Park in an effort to go back-to-back, albeit this time in 4A as opposed to 3A.
The Hawks (23-5-1) begin state tournament play at 9:30 a.m. Friday against Jefferson, with Mountain State Athletic Conference members St. Albans and Cabell Midland also squaring off that day. The winners and losers of those two matchups will play later Friday, with the championship set for Saturday.
“We’ll go down there and make a strong showing again,” UHS head coach Mindy Parks said. “I really believe that. This team has it all the way through.”
UHS enters well-tested, having been pushed to the limit in both matchups last week with the Mohigans, a 21-win team that split a pair of regular season matchups with its crosstown rival.
After outlasting MHS in extras to gain a 1-0 series edge, UHS was held in check and then some by Morgantown pitcher Madison Wisman throughout the second contest. Not until Sophia Lehosit’s seventh-inning double that drove in the game’s first run did the Hawks manage a hit, and that marked their only one.
An abundance of offense wasn’t necessary as Lehosit throw four scoreless innings followed by an additional three scoreless frames from winning pitcher Maddie Campbell.
“Most schools don’t have that,” Parks said of two high-end pitchers, both of whom were instrumental throughout last year’s title run.
Lehosit’s start in Game 2 against Morgantown was particularly encouraging as she went toe-to-toe with Wisman hours after being cleared to pitch with no restrictions.
“I just got cleared [Tuesday] to not have a pitch count and to be able to throw 100 percent,” Lehosit said. “I’ve been really excited to get back in the circle and throw the best I can.
“I had shoulder tendinitis that went into my bicep and every time I’d come up to release, it would stretch and feel like it would snap.”
The injury also impacted Lehosit in the batter’s box, though more mentally than physically.
“I put more pressure on myself to try and hit the ball since I couldn’t help my teammates in the circle,” she said.
Lehosit believes the rapport she and Campbell have with UHS catcher Olivia Masoner puts both in position to be successful in the pitching circle. Each of the aforementioned trio are juniors on a team whose lone senior is leadoff hitter and second baseman Kelsey Park.
“We all try really hard, but most important, we all try and have fun. If we’re not having fun, we don’t play the best we can,” Lehosit said. “Olivia does a really great job calling pitches. Maddie and I have full trust in her. Her calling pitches is kind of like a routine for us now.”
Masoner’s impact is hardly lost on Parks, who feels a tight-knit roster is one of her team’s top traits.
“She knows these girls. She’s grown up with them since they were little,” Parks said. “Just having that relationship more than anything, it starts with the friendships and relationships. They know each other so well.”
UHS, which will face Class AAA state tournament qualifier Weir in a tune-up Monday, knows a tough challenge awaits against Jefferson. The two teams split a pair of regular season matchups in April and the Cougars have recent state tournament experience from 2023 along with a state championship the year prior.
The Hawks, however, have a leg up on experience at state from last season, when they first defeated Greenbrier East and then won two of three matchups against Washington to finish on top.
“It was so new to us last year and we didn’t know what we were walking into,” Parks said. “We just wanted to get there, but once we got there, we wanted to win. Again, we want to do more than just show up.”