WEST UNION, W.Va. — Doddridge County has had great difficulty getting in games at the start of its 2026 softball season.
So it was only natural for the Bulldogs to feel a sense of disappointment Wednesday night as torrential rain swept through West Union and brought about a suspension to a home matchup with St. Marys in the bottom of the fourth inning.
DCHS holds an 8-2 lead, has already scored three times in the fourth and will have a runner at third base with no outs when the teams resume, which they will attempt to do on April 16th.
“We’re starting to get some confidence hitting,” Bulldogs’ coach Wesley Ezell said. “Part of our issue is we haven’t played a lot. Teams we’ve had on our schedule have had dirt fields, or for a variety of reasons and whatever they are, we haven’t gotten to play very many games. We’ve played three and Wahama has played 13. They’re more than one-third of the way through their schedule already. Our goal every year is to win more games than we won the previous year. We won 27 last year and I don’t even know if we’re going to get 27 in.”
St. Marys (1-3) struck first in the top of the first inning against a team it suffered a 7-4 setback to earlier this season. Maddie Lambert singled home the first run and an error enabled a second to score in that inning as the Blue Devils gained a 2-0 advantage.
The lead, however, was short-lived.
One day after a 21-run outburst in a win against Tyler Consolidated, Doddridge (3-0) essentially picked up where it left off, and a two-out, two-run double from Isabella Holtz tied the matchup at 2 in the home half of the first.
A dropped fly ball the would’ve resulted in the third out of the inning instead allowed Bulldogs’ pitcher Tessa Mayle to reach and Holtz to score for the Bulldogs’ first lead, which was 3-2 after one.
Pitching with an advantage seemed to help settle in Maye, who worked around a one-out error in the top of the second to keep the Blue Devils from scoring.
Doddridge doubled its lead in the home half of that inning when Caitlyn Pratt singled to right, allowing Brooke DeHaven to score before Pratt was thrown out trying to advance to second.
Autumn Mossor belted a one-out double for SMHS in the third, but never advanced beyond second base.
DCHS then gained a three-run lead in the third via Mayle’s sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Holtz to score after she’d hit another double and stole third.
The Bulldogs played effective small ball in the fourth to add to their lead, getting a bunt single from Maysun Gagnon, which combined with a throwing error, allowed Kylie Swiger to score the team’s sixth run.
DeHaven followed with a single to score Gagnon, before Hadley Ross laid down a bunt single that led to another error and DeHaven scoring the team’s eighth run.
“We’ve been working on moving and maneuvering kids around in the lineup,” Ezell said. “Today, we felt like we had something pretty solid and something we may settle on. Our kids did a great job of bunting, which advanced some runners and caused them to make some errors. When kids are moving around and throwing the ball and a lot of things are happening, there’s a greater chance at making errors.”
Lightning was then visible for a lengthy period of time, causing the umpires to pull both teams off the field.
Heavy rain followed and the teams agreed to pause the matchup for the day.
“They’re playing at Ritchie on April 16th and we’re playing home against Tyler,” Ezell said. “As soon as one of the two games is over, we’ll head to Ritchie to finish it or they’ll come here. Whatever makes it easiest for the umpires.”