Off to strong start, Watkins Memorial softball hopes to finish the deal this season

PATASKALA, Ohio – Confidence is just one of the attributes that has encapsulated the Watkins Memorial softball team following a two-year run of success unlike any it has enjoyed previously.

Another is perspective.

The Warriors are the top-ranked team in the Division I state poll according to the Ohio High School Fastpitch Coaches Association and also are atop the latest SBLive Ohio Top 25 Power Rankings.

Still, all of that means little in the long-term for Watkins Memorial if they fall short of their ultimate goal of winning their first state championship a few weeks from now at Akron’s Firestone Stadium.

It would seem to complicate matters that the Warriors’ standout pitcher and Pittsburgh commit, junior Carsyn Cassady, hasn’t pitched since April 10 because of a right sprained medial collateral ligament and likely won’t hit the circle again until possibly the postseason.

Watkins Memorial, though, refuses to let that cloud what it expects to accomplish in the big picture.

“Everybody’s goal is to win the last game, and that’s kind of been their goal all along,” head coach Mike Jellison said. “These games right now don’t matter. We just want to win the last one. This is the first year I’ve gone this many games in that I’ve not had one kid ask me about their batting average or did they get an RBI. I don’t have a parent moaning about this or that.

“(Cassady) was warming up (April 10) to get ready for a game and she just slipped a little bit and strained her knee. It was bugging her, so we just shut it down. These games are not as important as the games in late May, so we decided to shut her down for four weeks.”

Cassady won her first 11 decisions this season, striking out 95 in 51 innings and posting a 0.55 ERA before her injury occurred and she holds the program record for career strikeouts. Sophomore Kendal Tellings has filled in at pitcher during Cassady’s absence.

With a 6-4 win over Heath on April 26, the Warriors improved to 19-0 overall and 9-0 in the Licking County League.

Included among their most recent wins was a matchup April 25 against Marysville, the eighth-ranked team in the Division I state poll.

Before one of its biggest crowds of the season and in just its second game on its new home field, Watkins Memorial outslugged the Monarchs 8-4 as senior first baseman McKayla Jellison hit two home runs and senior center fielder Taylor Gerhardt and senior catcher Jordyn Wycuff smashed one apiece.

The Warriors beat Marysville 9-4 in a regional semifinal a year ago.

Wycuff has committed to Ohio University, Gerhardt will play for Adrian and McKayla Jellison has committed to Tiffin.

“Our team chemistry this year is phenomenal,” Wycuff said. “We just take it one game at a time every day. Our confidence was really high coming into this year. We knew the amount of talent we had and knew what was behind us, and we obviously knew that Carsyn was a great pitcher. We’ve just kept working behind her, and our confidence has always been high.”

Watkins Memorial is in its 10th season under Mike Jellison and went 33-2 in 2021, losing 1-0 to Massillon Perry in the state championship as Cassady struck out nine but her team finished with just one hit.

Then last spring, Holland Springfield scored two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth inning and held off a late rally attempt to win 4-2 in a state semifinal as the Warriors finished 28-3.

It’s a run of success that Mike Jellison wasn’t necessarily expecting when he became coach 10 years ago.

Another of Jellison’s daughters, 2021 graduate Madison Jellison, started at catcher as a senior when the Warriors were state runners-up.

“I was coaching baseball, and when I took over, I think they’d won six games over the previous three years,” coach Jellison said. “At the time, my oldest daughter (Madison Jellison), was in the fourth grade and I had a bunch of the parents in that fourth-grade class come up to me and say, ‘You’ve got to apply for this job.’ So I applied for it, and in my first couple years was trying to get them to buy into my philosophy. There was no youth program, and you can’t build a house from the top down, so the first thing we did was start a youth league.

“My goal has been to concentrate on three kids per grade. If I can find three kids that have bought in, then you can have 12 studs, and you have to have one pitcher in there. That’s been my philosophy, and we’ve had pretty good success the past couple years with that. It’s a different kind of pressure now than it was a few years ago, where you feel like you’ve got to be perfect every night.”

Through 19 games, Wycuff was batting .581 with six home runs and 30 RBI, Gerhardt was hitting .556 with five home runs and 29 RBI, sophomore infielder Maleya Thompson was batting .500 with five home runs and McKayla Jellison was batting .482 with six home runs and 32 RBI. Junior utility player Cortney Dobbs was hitting .414.

Junior Ava McKee, a Hartley transfer, is one of the area’s top catchers as well according to coach Jellison but has spent much of her time this season at other positions.

Wycuff and Cassady began playing together at the travel level in seventh grade and according to Wycuff, the two can “read each other’s minds” as they’re calling a game.

“I moved into the school (district) when I was in sixth grade and we became best friends,” Cassady said. “There’s a comfort level between us where even if there’s one bad call and maybe (the batter) hits a home run, I’m comfortable enough to know she’s not going to make any bad calls the rest of the game.

“(My rehabilitation) has been going pretty well. When I get back, it’s going to be light’s out, time to go, tournament time. I’m hoping we can win the whole thing.”