Wauford reflects on her stellar season as a Lady Ranger

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

In a season that saw Northwood only get to play 20 games — partly due to the weather and being a league with just four teams — it’s safe to say the Lady Rangers made the most of it.
Northwood had to replace six seniors and had four returning starters, plus even though having just 11 players in all, went 10-10 and 6-0 in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference, winning the league for the fourth consecutive year.
Starting in 2025, the Rangers will play in the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division, where there will be more stability.
The highlight of the season came when Northwood trailed Emmanuel Christian, 3-2, in the bottom of the seventh inning in a game that decided whether the Rangers would claim the TAAC title outright, or if it would be shared between Northwood and the Warriors.
With two out and nobody on, Natalie Thompson reached on a single, Shealyn Nestor hit a single and Lea Wauford drove in Thompson with a base hit, which was followed up by Lizzie Caspar hitting a single to score Nestor for the win, 4-3.
Junior pitcher Lea Wauford led the way with an incredible season, hitting a remarkable .606 to go with five home runs, 12 doubles, a triple and 41 RBIs. She struck out just once and had an on-base percentage of .663.
In the circle, she went 10-8 with a 4.33 ERA in 99.2 innings of work. Wauford also struck out 148 batters and walked 26.
“I feel like I did better than I thought I would, especially hitting,” said Wauford, who plans to play at the collegiate level. “I kind of surprised myself. I think we did a lot better than anyone expected. As a team, I think we did better than expected.
“For next year, our goal would probably be to win the TAAC. For myself, I want to keep a high batting average and have a good ERA,” she said.
Thompson, who caught for Wauford, hit .386 with an on-base percentage of .470, Nestor hit .357 (.420 OBP), Caspar hit .354 (.447 OBP) and drove in 24 runs while Kadience Karmol hit .351 and drove in 26 runs.
The rest of the lineup included Shelby Mercer, Lexi Haas, Madison Huenefel, Eden Schoch, Marissa Johanns and Adelaide Moreno. Karissa Davies would’ve played had she not tore her ACL playing for the basketball team.
“It was a rebuilding year,” said Northwood coach Jennifer Noonan. “I’m really proud of how they did (this season).”
For Haas, Lexi, Thompson and Moreno, they will graduate having won the TAAC four times in a row.
Noonan talked about some of the group’s other accomplishments.
“Watching the growth and development of the players – Kadience Karmol hitting her first career home run this season and Shelby making her debut (in the circle) as a Ranger was special, as was Madison making her debut (in the circle) as a freshman. We competed and played great softball against very talented and competitive teams in our area.”